History Main / PrivateMilitaryContractors

* "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" by Music/WarrenZevon. Roland is a Norwegian mercenary hired to fight in the Congo Crisis of the 1960s. He is betrayed by a fellow mercenary and goes seeking revenge, [[{{Determinator}} despite being dead]]. It's then implied he goes on to become a spirit of conflict, following the major ideological wars across the world and in some cases inciting them ("Patty Hearst/heard the burst/of Roland's Thompson gun/and bought it"). Notably, David Lindell, the man who co-wrote the song with Zevon and inspired him to write it, was a former mercenary.
* "Contractor" by Music/LambOfGod

In stark contrast, the "''corporate mercenary''" is usually just a {{Mook}} or RedShirt of some kind, and the "character" takes the form of the PMC corporation itself. Corporate mercs are usually depicted as being up to no good, or are the hand-puppets of some shadowy organization which is itself up to no good. They are portrayed — when anything more than FacelessGoons — as amoral, ethically challenged, and professional but [[MyMasterRightOrWrong hardly ever inclined to argue with Corporate Headquarters]]. If former military, many will have been dishonorably discharged. Unless the writer's bent on defying WhatMeasureIsAMook, they will almost never be the "good guys" in recent years. Their parent company usually has a name based loosely or thematically on "Blackwater" in a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed {{Expy}} of that real-life PMC — examples include [[Series/KnightRider "Blackriver"]], [[Comicbook/TheBoys "Red River"]], [[Series/TheUnit "Blackthorne"]], [[VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist "Murky]][[VideoGame/{{PAYDAY2}} water"]], [[Series/TwentyFour "Starkwood"]], [[VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution "Bluewater"]], [[Series/TrueDetective "Black Mountain"]], [[Series/PersonOfInterest "Silverpool"]], [[Series/{{Damages}} "Highstar"]], and [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV "Merryweather"]].

Note that although this trope description uses the terms "PMC" and "mercenaries" interchangeably, in RealLife the distinction between them is extremely SeriousBusiness. This is because the international treaties that establish UsefulNotes/TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar explicitly ''forbid'' the usage of mercenaries in warfare. While traditional mercenaries might be tolerated in ''practice'', legally they are neither lawful combatants nor non-combatants, and thus aren't eligible for protection and respectful treatment under, for example, the Geneva conventions. When captured, they are treated as a criminal gang at best, and at worst as complete outlaws.

** "Pranger's Bangers", on the other hand, are {{Consummate Professional}}s who are considered ''much'' more skilled than the Toughs. They just lack their luck and Crazy Awesomeness. It's notable that when the Toughs ended up fighting the Bangers in an alternate timeline, the Toughs ''accidentally'' ambushed the Bangers[[note]]as in, they knew the actual target had hired guards, just not that it would be the Bangers[[/note]], killed their boss and all his elite troops[[note]]which show how effective the Toughs were, since it was only Tagon, Elf, and Schlock for an expected easy assignment[[/note]], and then went on to survive several revenge attacks. Don't underestimate the value of good luck.

** Tagon's Toughs are one group in a universe full of them. Notable in that they have an InUniverse reputation as vaguely ethical semi-skilled suckers with milliseconds of genius who will gladly take almost anything if the money is good and are willing to let people get away with suckering them as long as they're paid well. In many cases this is actually their selling point; HotBlooded, LowerClassLout[=s=] who are OnlyInItForTheMoney and will hit ''any'' AcceptableTargets you ask them to, NeverHurtAnInnocent, and put up with all manner of abuse as long as they get to choose their own deployment, armament and ''pay''ment.

* ''ComicBook/RobinSeries'': Strader Pharmaceuticals hires a group of unethical Private Military Contractors to [[DeadlyEuphemism clean up]] the evidence of their fatal and incredibly dangerous unethical testing of a new PsychoSerum by tracking down and killing the already dying victims.

In stark contrast, the "''corporate mercenary''" is usually just a {{Mook}} or RedShirt of some kind, and the "character" takes the form of the PMC corporation itself. Corporate mercs are usually depicted as being up to no good, or are the hand-puppets of some shadowy organization which is itself up to no good. They are portrayed — when anything more than FacelessGoons — as amoral, ethically challenged, and professional but [[MyMasterRightOrWrong hardly ever inclined to argue with Corporate Headquarters]]. If former military, many will have been dishonorably discharged. Unless the writer's bent on defying WhatMeasureIsAMook, they will almost never be the "good guys" in recent years. Their parent company usually has a name based loosely or thematically on "Blackwater" in a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed {{Expy}} of that real-life PMC — examples include [[Series/KnightRider "Blackriver"]], [[Comicbook/TheBoys "Red River"]], [[Series/TheUnit "Blackthorne"]], [[VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist "Murky]][[VideoGame/{{PAYDAY2}} water"]], [[Series/TwentyFour "Starkwood"]], [[VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution "Bluewater"]], [[Series/TrueDetective "Black Mountain"]], [[Series/PersonOfInterest "Silverpool"]], [[Series/{{Damages}} Highstar]], and [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV "Merryweather"]].

In stark contrast, the "''corporate mercenary''" is usually just a {{Mook}} or RedShirt of some kind, and the "character" takes the form of the PMC corporation itself. Corporate mercs are usually depicted as being up to no good, or are the hand-puppets of some shadowy organization which is itself up to no good. They are portrayed — when anything more than FacelessGoons — as amoral, ethically challenged, and professional but [[MyMasterRightOrWrong hardly ever inclined to argue with Corporate Headquarters]]. If former military, many will have been dishonorably discharged. Unless the writer's bent on defying WhatMeasureIsAMook, they will almost never be the "good guys" in recent years. Their parent company usually has a name based loosely or thematically on "Blackwater" in a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed {{Expy}} of that real-life PMC — examples include [[Series/KnightRider "Blackriver"]], [[Comicbook/TheBoys "Red River"]], [[Series/TheUnit "Blackthorne"]], [[VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist "Murky]][[VideoGame/{{PAYDAY2}} water"]], [[Series/TwentyFour "Starkwood"]], [[VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution "Bluewater"]], [[Series/TrueDetective "Black Mountain"]], [[Series/PersonOfInterest "Silverpool"]], and [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV "Merryweather"]].

A sub-trope of HiredGuns, and can overlap somewhat with the ProfessionalKiller. If employed by a MegaCorp, then CorporateWarfare can be expected. Commonly a favorite industry of a ProudWarriorRace. A PrivateIntelligenceAgency is usually another service a PMC will provide to its clients.

!!Examples:

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Manga/Area88'': The fighter pilots at the eponymous airbase mix elements of this trope and the [[LegionOfLostSouls Foreign Legion]]. At one point, they fight the Wolf Pack, who play it straight.
* ''Manga/BlackLagoon'':
** The Lagoon Company itself might also qualify as mercenaries of the modern-day pirate persuasion, although it focuses more on black market goods and personnel courier.
** The Extra Order mercs from the first arc are described as war-junkies and take things to PsychoForHire levels at the Yellow Flag before Revy and the Lagoon Company take them down. They were probably a ShoutOut to the real-world Executive Outcomes, below.
%%** Balalaika's personal branch of the Russian mob.
* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' has mercenaries as its primary characters, with its lead character Guts having been trained as one from childhood. The Golden Age arc of the manga, which the anime covers, follows a mercenary company called the Band of the Falcon that Guts was a part of, and in particular the events that would lead to its idealistic leader, Griffith, undergoing a nasty FaceHeelTurn and becoming Guts' number one enemy.
* ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis'': The Knight Sabers build their own [[WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys Wonderful Toys]], but pay for the materials by contracting their services.
%%* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'': Trident.
* ''Anime/CodeGeass'': After the formation of the United Federation of Nations, the [[LaResistance Black Knights]] become this to them, with Zero as its CEO.
* ''LightNovel/DateALive'': The Deux.Ex.Machina Wizards operate in this way, although they're more like either MurderInc or PsychoForHire. As the company's private Wizards, they're considerably more powerful and well-trained than the Wizards from AST and SSS. Unfortunately, some of them are just trained to be [[BlindObedience loyal fanatics]] and [[AxCrazy psychopaths]] who will obey [[BigBad Isaac Ray Peram Westcott's]] and [[TheDragon Ellen Mathers]] orders without questioning them.
* ''Manga/DesertRose'': The protagonists of the manga belong to CAT, which stands for "Counterattack Terrorism". They're a fairly positive portrayal, thanks to the organization's clear mission statement to take contracts to defeat international terrorism and train others to do so. That said, certain chapters show this isn't always clear cut, as the governments they take jobs for may end up being a BananaRepublic trying to quash local guerillas -- legally correct, if not morally dubious.
* ''Lightnovel/FullMetalPanic'': The organization Mithril is one of these, and a large proportion of the show's characters, including one of the two main characters, are members.
* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'': provides several examples:
** The PMC Trust in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 Gundam 00]]'', a massive coalition of dozens of PMC groups, and powerful enough to have their own dedicated nation. The first season of 00 features two episodes to the Gundams tearing the place apart. Note that the PMC Trust is stated to have an arsenal of almost a hundred Mobile Suits (granted, some of them probably belonged to the AEU who helped defend the place), and Celestial Being only has 4 MS at their disposal. And the Gundams still wrecked the place in just 4 hours...
** Serpent Tail in ''[[Manga/MobileSuitGundamSeedAstray Gundam SEED Astray]]''. In ''Gundam SEED Destiny Astray'', special forces unit of the Eurasian Federation have also deserted to form Mercenary Unit X.
** Terminal of ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeedDestiny Gundam SEED Destiny]]'', which grew out of the original Three Ships Alliance and hired enough new soldiers to become an NGOSuperpower on an even greater scale than before. They are an underground armed organization that answers solely to Lacus Clyne, and are not affiliated with either the Earth or ZAFT forces. [[spoiler:During the final battle, they get several warships from both sides to defect to them.]]
** The League Militaire [[Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam (late UC era)]]. They're quite specifically ''not'' the Federation military, they just rose up due to the Federation being too apathetic to oppose Zanscare. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that one of their primary sponsors is Anaheim Electronics, a major player in the area of Mobile Suit and weapons design, which explains where they get all their advanced equipment.]]
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans'' is centered around one originally called CGS but is renamed Tekkadan early in the show. They both fight and ally with several other mercenary groups over the course of the show.
* ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'': After most of the members of the eponymous organization are killed, its leader Integra hires the mercenary group called the "Wild Geese", ([[ShoutOut see under "Film", below]]) led by Pip Bernadotte, as a replacement RedshirtArmy.
* ''Manga/HunterXHunter'': Hunters serve as this, although the Hunters Association is a loose guild — hunters take their own jobs, and the Guild provides contacts and perks.
* ''Manga/{{Jormungand}}'': Several [=PMCs=] show up. Koko's bodyguards are on the books as employees of a PMC owned by H&C Logistics Incorporated. The Chinese PMC Daxinghai are the primary antagonists of the first season, and HCLI gets into a fight with British PMC Excalibur in ''Perfect Order''.
* ''Anime/{{Macross}}'':
** SMS in ''Anime/MacrossFrontier''. They're portrayed in a positive light, and early on are actually more prepared to fight the Vajra than the regular military.
** ''Anime/MacrossDelta'' has Chaos, who are unique in that they also operate the IdolSinger group Walkure. This is because Walkure is actually a "[[InsistentTerminology Tactical Sound Unit]]" whose singing is designed to stop a HatePlague that is itself spread subliminally by song. The series does point out a downside to being in such a mercenary group: mercenaries cannot claim Prisoner of War status and do not have the same rights as actual soldiers when captured.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': The ninja villages are a fantasy version of this. They're answerable to their nation's daimyo due to their role in national security, but they can contract missions with employers of other nationalities as well. While what their lower-level [[ChildSoldiers personnel]] does can be tasks as mundane as finding cats or doing yard work, the higher-ranked missions often include bodyguards for important political figures, working in place of regular military, or assassination ([[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything not that we see them doing the last two parts very much]]).
** The Grass Country Arc was about gathering info from TheMole as a prelude to assassinating Orochimaru, and in the course of which a plot to assassinate Sasuke was uncovered. The following arc revolved around a mission to assassinate Akatsuki duo Hidan and Kakuzu before they captured Naruto. We ''do'' see stuff like that, though admittedly these are all security matters and not hired mercenary missions.
** Prior to the founding of the villages, shinobi clans more closely filled this role.
** This is also what Akatsuki did to raise funds when they weren't pursuing their own agenda. Not that we ever got to see it.
* In ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'', Mana Tatsumiya explained that she was once a part of one of these named Kanbanurae. She traveled to so many battlefields across the far corners of the globe that main lead Negi questioned whether she could [[OlderThanTheyLook actually be 15 years of age]]. Keep in mind, at the time she was ''7-10''. Also, Nagi Springfield's group the Ala Rubra used this as a front for their work in the {{Muggle|s}} world.
* ''Anime/{{Obsolete}}'': Cerberus Security Services in Episode 4 provides Exoframe-equipped ex-military personnel to guard an oil refinery in the Persian Gulf.
* After the timeskip in ''Manga/OnePiece'', the Buggy Pirates become this when Buggy, the captain, becomes a Warlord of the Sea. [[spoiler:Until after Reverie Arc, of course.]]
* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': In this GreyAndGreyMorality CyberPunk setting, a majority of the cast are this, called Hunters, whose primary purpose is to be a cheap way to pilfer LostTechnology from NeglectfulPrecursors. The morality of hunters ranges from kind PunchClockHero types such as Elena and Sara, to bands of sociopathic criminals who take advantage of other hunters and are happy to RapePillageAndBurn. About half of the enemies the UnscrupulousHero Akira fights are either the latter or PunchClockVillain hunters, instead of monsters. As for organizations, we see the inside of two hunter gangs in a SlobsVersusSnobs dynamic: There’s Sheryl’s gang Akira builds up, which is built out of a RagtagBunchOfMisfits collection of StreetUrchin, [[IndenturedServitude debtor]], and [[AntiHero underworld hunters]]. And then there's the established and wealthier Drankam, a more classic pmc rife with [[WeAreStrugglingTogether internal squabbles]], ArmchairMilitary blunders, and BoisterousWeakling young hunters stemming from favoritism.
* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline: Alicization'', the major real-world antagonists of this arc are agents from Glowgen Defense Systems, a powerful PMC based out of San Diego. Real-life San Diego is home to both a U.S. Navy base in Point Loma and U.S. Marine Corps Camp Pendleton; so naturally, many companies that the Department of Defense regularly contracts with have [[https://www.sandiegobusiness.org/blog/mapping-san-diegos-defense-ecosystem/ set up in San Diego]], such as [[http://www.kratosdefense.com/ Kratos Defense & Security Solutions]], [[http://www.cubic.com/ Cubic Corporation]], [[http://www.ga.com/ General Atomics]], and local branch offices of aerospace giants Raytheon and Northrup Grumman, among others.
* ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'': In the original sound novels, both the TIPS and Ange mention that along with the rest of [[HotBlooded Amakusa's]] [[PersonaNonGrata long resume]], he also trained Blackwater troops.
* ''Anime/VipersCreed'': Arqon Global Security is a PMC tasked with the elimination of "Mech Bugs", stray war machines from a war that ended eight years prior to the story, and still attack cities at random. It is a notable example since the main characters are a pilot and his operator working for Arqon, plus their companions and the overall staff make up most of the cast. Basically the anime is ''about'' the PMC.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11481821/ Another Way]]'': At first glance, Marquis appears to be running a ProtectionRacket, but as it turns out, he's actually operating it as a legitimate security business. Danny Hebert is rather taken aback when he's interrupted in the middle of being mugged by the Empire 88; a group of men approach in Marquis uniform, offering to handle it for a hundred dollars, and when he takes the deal, they do just that, producing batons and putting the muggers down in short order.
--> '''Mercia:''' This protection, by the way, sir, lasts for twenty-four hours. Forty dollars start-up, ten dollars per day or part thereof, half price for women and children. One hundred dollars all told.
* In ''Fanfic/AnEntryWithABang'', several down-on-their-luck merc groups like the Buron Cavalry are dragooned into joining Vorax's expedition to Clancy-Earth and are {{Heel Face Turn}}ed. At one point, Buron Cav head Major Staedele gets into a disagreement with Blackwater's CEO after noting how C-Earther [=PMCs=] are not up to snuff for the full-scale independent open warfare demanded of ''[=BattleTech=]'' merc groups.
* ''Fanfic/CivilizationVPeaceWalker'': The MSF civilization's core game mechanic is that they earn money and approval from city-states when guarding their borders, with the trade-off that insurgents will periodically spawn and cause trouble.
** After researching the right technology and picking the proper civic, the MSF ends up hiring some German Landsknechts to help fill out their forces.
** When things are at their worst during the second round, [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots a gunrunner named Drebin]] shows up to provide MSF with [[VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown a state-of-the-art combat unit]].
** Ocelot's "Outer Heaven" faction consists of [[spoiler:PMC bases constructed by PMC Incorporators earned from combat instead of Great Generals]].
* ''Series/ForeverKnight'' is a series of fanfic round-robins in which factions focused around the different characters have a free-for-all, the Mercs are a notable presence. They will take jobs from anyone in any faction; payment is negotiable and extremely variable, but they are fond of chocolate.
* ''Fanfic/{{Forward}}'' features a mercenary firm called "Skyhawk Intervention" which directs a number of other mercenary companies across the 'Verse. One of the stories features a mercenary group called [[ShoutOut Talon]] [[VideoGame/Fallout3 Company]] who are the main villains for that "episode".
* ''Fanfic/{{Harbinger}}'': Armacham markets the Replicas as a voice-controlled PMC force, and is developing Fettel's Replicas to be controlled by a psychic commander. They also maintain their own PMC forces separate from the Replicas.
* ''Fanfic/HarryPotterAndTheNotFatalAtAllCulturalExchangeProgram'': Ettore is the founder of Rosetta Stone, a bunch of wands-for-hire.
* ''Fanfic/LinkedInLifeAndLove'': By the time of the story, Raven Branwen has reformated her BanditClan into Branwen Private Defense, a respected mercenary company that she describes as "huntsmen on a budget;" if there's a job that would normally require one huntsman, she sends five of her people and they get the job done. Furthermore, the BPD essentially acts as the police force and army for the entire country of Mistral, patrolling roads and hunting down monsters. The Huntsmen and Huntresses would normally do all that, but for some reason, Headmaster Lionheart has gotten paranoid and withdrawn them all to the capital, then hired the BPD to do the job instead.
* ''Fanfic/TheLionOfIvalice'': The Glabados Church has shades of this, as they hire out their Templar Knights to secular armies for additional training and experience.
* ''Fanfic/MercenariesOfFortune'': Ghost Force 969 is a PMC organization that, because they are the only military force in the world that can deal with the threat of [[Main/TheHeartless the Shadows]], they are effectively a NGOSuperpower.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfics:
** ''Fanfic/EquestriaDivided'': [[OneNationUnderCopyright House Whitegold]] doesn't have an army like the other factions; rather, most of its forces are composed of mercenaries of various species — chiefly ponies, griffons, diamond dogs, and zebras.
** ''Fanfic/FalloutEquestria'': Nearly all griffons are mercenaries in the Wasteland, and most of them are under contract with [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Red Eye]]. However, Littlepip does get on the good side of Gawd and her mercenaries early on. It's to the point that when [[spoiler:Stable 2 is attacked]], [[TheCavalry Gawd sends her own children to help]] before Littlepip even has a chance to ask. They ''do'' expect to be paid after, but griffons are normally infamous for never doing anything without negotiating a contract first, so the fact that they have faith that Littlepip will compensate them fairly is a huge sign of trust.
** ''Fanfic/IAgainstIMeAgainstYou'': The third act introduces Whitewater, a company of Equestrian mercenaries hired to perform a hit on the main characters.
** ''Fanfic/RacerAndTheGeek'': A very significant part revolves around the lives of mercenaries by focusing on one individual. The story takes a very nuanced approach to the trope.
** ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/88520/1/welcome-to-the-brothel/das-laufhaus Welcome To The Brothel]]'': The main characters are almost all mercenaries fighting a bloody civil war.
* ''Naruto: Soldiers of Fortune'': Ninjas working for villages are replaced with mercenaries that work for private military contractors. Still no guns though.
* ''Fanfic/TheNewestChallenger'':
** Karin has them protecting her personal property, as does her family, the latter in large numbers. Sadly for them, they're pure RedshirtArmy.
** Naruto is essentially a one-man PMC, taking jobs for whoever decides to pay him, and it helps even more that he can make a massive clone army to help out.
* ''Fanfic/TheNightUnfurls'': It is safe to infer that many of these exist in Eostia, given how the remastered version notes that mercenary work is a booming business. Though, the only prominent one in the story is the Black Dogs, the most famous mercenary group in Eostia. With Vault as the leader, the Black Dogs have had a close partnership with the Seven Shields during the [[ForeverWar war]] against Olga's forces. They then decide to [[FaceHeelTurn go]] [[EtTuBrute rogue]] and [[WonTheWarLostThePeace start another conflict]] to create a [[SexSlave Sex]] [[TheEmpire Empire]] after taking over the Black Fortress.
* ''Fanfic/NymeriasWar'': A majority of Efran Sand's forces consists of sellswords, who are OnlyInItForTheMoney. Dalia and her Wild Suns, as well as Tryden and his Company of the Rose, are also this in their work for the Kingdom of Brimstone.
* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10099886/3/Of-Blood-and-Steel Of Blood and Steel]]'': [[OriginalCharacter Henrietta]] is the daughter of a CEO of one such group, and as such [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer gets ostracized by he schoolmates]] who have family in the army, especially in her JROTC program. [[AngstWhatAngst She says she's used to it, though]].
* ''Fanfic/{{Origins}}'': Aria hires the Blood Pack to burn a significant portion of the Omega space station since KillItWithFire is the best way to deal with [[spoiler:Flood]]. It's noted that the Blood Pack are the most destructive of the big three and [[KickTheDog don't care if civilians haven't evacuated yet]].
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' fanfics:
** ''Fanfic/TheLifeOfTheLegendaries'' depicts Silph Co. as owning Kanto's navy, army, and air force.
** ''Fanfic/{{Pokedex}}'': In the past, before firearms were invented or Pokémon taming became widespread, Gallades would often seek out human wars to fight in for pride and glory, taking payments in Rare Candies and vitamins when the fighting was done and leaving for the next conflict.
* ''Fanfic/RedFireRedPlanet'': Brokosh is a Lethean mercenary who used to work for a group called Hanson's Harriers, although he's currently in the Klingon Defense Force.
* ''Fanfic/TheReturn'': Willard International Consulting are PMC in theory, although in practice they come across more as an NGOSuperpower.
* ''Fanfic/RoanapurConnection'': What the Golden Company are shown to be in Eye of the Storm, though they seem to run the mill of taking on security guard or low profile work for the most part since the Russia-EU war ended. Which Nathan and Ganabati seek to change. But they also are implied to have a vast history like the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Company White Company]] did in real life in fighting in many conflicts across European History, along other numerous RL merc groups if Ganabati’s pov is anything to go by. [[spoiler:They are heavily hinted to be PlausibleDeniability for the EU to operate in places they don't or can't be seen to have a hand in]].
* ''Fanfic/SonicXDarkChaos'':
** The Metarex are depicted as an extremely powerful version of this, funded and controlled by both their [[spoiler: Seedrian cyborg]] leaders and the mysterious "M" [[spoiler: who happens to actually be Maledict]].
** Tsali also founded his own private military company, although it's been almost completely destroyed by the start of the story (he's the only member of it left).
* ''Fanfic/TruthAndConsequences'': After Ladybug tricks Paris into believing Chat has turned traitor, Mayor Bourgeois hires American mercenaries to keep the peace. They quickly prove to be little more than mindless thugs.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/AmericanSniper'', a couple of PMC's show up during Kyle's various tours of duty in Iraq. In a rare twist, they are presented in a heroic light for once. Aiding the American forces in firefights against the insurgents.
* In ''Film/TheATeam'', the bad guys (at first) are from the Blackforest PMC, a thinly disguised {{expy}} of the RealLife Blackwater.
* ''Film/{{Avatar}}'': All the human soldiers and pilots, even though they seem to represent the US military, are actually ''ex''-soldiers and [[SemperFi Marines]] now working for the [[MegaCorp RDA corporation]] mining Pandora. It is notable that almost all of them are mentioned to have dishonorable discharges from the US military and took the job due to their lower standards in terms of what is acceptable, [[AllThereInTheManual though this fact is not mentioned in the movie proper]].
* In ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', [[Comicbook/LexLuthor Lex's]] [[{{Mooks}} henchmen]] are a group of [=PMCs=] led by [[TheDragon Anatoli Knyazev]].
* ''Film/BillionDollarBrain'' has the protagonist Film/HarryPalmer recruited into the private intelligence version, which a fervent anti-Communist Texan billionaire is using to commit sabotage in Latvia. In a subversion, it only consists of a few criminals who are embezzling his money.
* ''Film/BloodDiamond'' has Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio playing a former [[strike:Zimbabwean]] Rhodesian merc-turned-diamond smuggler, who works for a private contract army that has jumbo jets and MI-24 Hind gunships — a thinly-disguised {{expy}} of Executive Outcomes,
%%* ''Film/District9'': The MNU troops fall hard into the evil end of the spectrum.
* ''Film/TheDogsOfWar'' (1981), though the film removes much of the political points made by Forsyth about the links between big business and war.
* ''Film/TheExpendables'' are about a group of mercenaries who take any job they can get. It's a handy excuse for putting together some of the most legendary action heroes together and making everyone a badass. There are even some nods towards the way they operate, as they find out their most recent "employer" is actually the CIA looking to pass off some DirtyBusiness onto their shoulders.
* ''Film/FiftyFifty1992'': Jake Wyer and Sam French are both these. Of course, they both come to believe in the cause they are fighting for.
* In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'', the Ravagers, led by Yondu Udunta, act in this capacity when Ronan the Accuser attacks Xandar, defending the planet while the Nova Corp engage Ronan's ship in orbit. After being shot down, one of Ronan's Sakaarans tries to get Yondu to order his men to turn on the Nova Corp. Yondu responds by using his TrickArrow to kill said Sakaaran and all his comrades. After the battle, Yondu demands the orb containing the Power Stone, and departs.
* In ''Film/{{Hardcase}}'', Simon's revolutionaries are hiring foreign mercenaries, which make the ''Federales'' very suspicious of any gringos in the area. Booker Llewellyn is an American artilleryman working for Simon who acts as MrExposition for Jack when he joins Simon's forces.
* ''Film/TheHurtLocker'': The protagonists run across a unit of British [=PMCs=] who've captured two Iraq insurgents for the bounty. Like the rest of the movie, they seem to exist for the sole purpose of being ridiculous so that Creator/JeremyRenner can look more badass.
* ''Film/TheLastSamurai'', oddly enough. Both Colonel Bagley and Algren are American military post-Civil War, though Algren may be separated as his job at the beginning of the film is shilling guns for Winchester in San Francisco. But both take on contracts to sail to Japan to train their new professional military as part of Japan's phasing out of the Samurai caste system. This is actually TruthInTelevision, as up until just before UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, it was common for officers from a neutral country to serve as observers in other country's wars, where they would do just that, observing how other countries fought and glean new techniques and doctrines from what they saw[[labelnote:trivia]]As it happens, the American Civil War is one of the most studied conflicts in history, and not just by the historians. Fairly large contingents of Prussian, Russian, and even Swedish observers were seeded in almost all major battles throughout the war.[[/labelnote]], and others actually allowed their soldiers to sign on to fight in other wars to gain valuable combat experience, so long as it did not conflict with their own nation's interests and alliances.
%%* ''Film/LordOfWar'', so many, from South America and Little Odessa to Africa and Asia.
* ''Literature/TheManchurianCandidate'': In the 2004 remake, the [[DirtyCommunists Communist]] [[TheConspiracy conspiracy]] of the original book and 1962 movie was updated for the post-Cold War times by making the villains a MegaCorp named Manchurian Global instead, which also happens to be a PMC, or at least have a PMC division. [[spoiler:Part of the reason they wanted the eponymous Manchurian Candidate to be their sleeper agent in the White House was so they could get him to send their troops into the Middle East, among other reasons.]]
* ''Film/MercForce'': The eponymous characters are a band of mercenaries roaming space looking for jobs.
* ''Film/NationalTreasure2BookOfSecrets'': The BigBad is the head of a PMC, justifying why his {{Mook}}s are always armed and following all his orders.
* ''Film/{{Outpost}}'' has the eponymous installation investigated by a group of mercenaries firmly on the anti-hero sign of things. Their resumes are a Royal Marine (the commander), a US Marine (his second), a former IRA guerilla who joined the Paras, a UN Peacekeeper, a Foreign Legionnaire, a Russian Alpha Group soldier, and a Yugoslavian man whose unit is never named.
* ''Film/{{Predator}}'''s main characters are a heavily armed mercenary band, but they are far from unscrupulous. Main character Dutch outright states that they specialize in hostage and rescue operations, outright refusing to take contracts that only involve killing. [[spoiler:When it comes out that they were tricked and there were no hostages at the outpost they were sent to attack, they are ''extremely'' unhappy with their employer.]]
* ''Film/{{Predators}}'': Our main character Royce is a former American special forces soldier turned mercenary due to his BloodKnight views. He starts the film totally selfish and ruthless but evolves over the course of the story.
* ''Film/Rogue2020'': Within the grasslands of East Africa, a mercenary named Samantha "Sam" O'Hara is leading an operation with a team of multinational mercenaries on a rescue mission to retrieve Asilia Wilson, the teenage daughter of a governor who was abducted for ransom purposes alongside her two schoolmates Chloe and Tessa by Zalaam, the leader of a terrorist cell affiliated with al-Shabaab.
* ''Film/SASRiseOfTheBlackSwan''. The Black Swans are a family-owned PMC company headquartered in London. They are literal PsychosForHire as the father and his two adult children are high-functioning psychopaths, making them handy for doing dirty work for the British government and corporations until one of their atrocities is recorded on someone's mobile phone and an Interpol red notice is issued for crimes against humanity, setting off the plot.
* ''Film/UnderFire'': Oates is a mercenary whom Russell, a photojournalist, runs into in Chad (at the beginning of the film), and then later shows up in Nicaragua during the civil war, which is when most of the movie is set, fighting on behalf of the government. At the end of the film, when the civil war is over, he says goodbye to Russell by saying, "See you in Thailand."
* ''Film/{{Venom|2018}}'': Despite being a nominal ResearchInc, the Life Foundation employs hit squads with armored vehicles and high-tech {{Attack Drone}}s, who somehow get away with a high-damage ChaseScene through the streets of San Francisco.
%%* ''Film/TheProfessionals'': Rico and Dolworth.
* In ''Film/RamboIV'', after a group of missionaries disappears in the Burmese jungle, the pastor of their church hires Rambo and a squad of mercenaries to rescue them.
%%* ''Film/{{Shooter}}'': The {{Mooks}}.
* ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow'' (2004). The Flying Legion, clearly inspired by the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_tigers Flying Tigers]].
* In ''Film/{{Sleepy Hollow|1999}}'', the Headless Horseman is the vengeful ghost of one of the Hessian mercenaries hired by Great Britain during the American Revolution.
* In ''Franchise/StarWars'' we have the Trade Defense Force, the military arm of the Trade Federation created originally to defend ships from the Trade Federation and its member companies from pirate attacks. By the time of the Prequels, however, most of their manpower has been replaced with droids and the Trade Federation is using it to force "customers" into giving up their worlds to them.
** Other megacorporations, such as the [=InterGalactic=] Banking Clan, the Techno Union, the Corporate Alliance, and others have their own "security divisions" of battle droids, similar to the Trade Defense Force but more specialized. Their combined forces become the military of the Confederacy of Independent System, with their officers, such as Grievous, becoming the Separatist military leaders.
* ''Film/TripleThreat2019'': The antagonist, Collins, leads a team of professional mercenaries. Payu and Long Fei used to be mercenaries before defecting.
%%* ''Film/WarInc''
* ''Film/{{Water|1985}}'': An island in the West Indies that strikes a deposit of pure mineral water. Annoyed at the competition, the French hire a group of mercenaries to blow it up. After blowing up the well and nearly throttling the island's governor to death, the mercenary commander then leaves the governor [[MyCard his card]], saying: "If you are in need of an army, just call."
-->'''French agent:''' This is a dangerous mission, and some of you will die. But remember, in a world gone mad, you will die for a principle that you all hold close to your heart. Money!\\
'''Mercenaries:''' Viva franc! Viva deutschmark! Viva dollar! Viva [[SwissBankAccount numbered bank account in Switzerland]]!
* ''Film/TheWildGeese'' (1978) depicts the recruitment of a mercenary force to free an imprisoned African leader, only for the force to be abandoned when their sponsors strike a deal with the current rulers of the country.
* ''Film/WolfWarriorII'' is set in an African country suffering a civil war. The brutal rebels have hired the Dyson Corporation, who are described as the most expensive mercenaries in Europe. Towards the end of the film, the mercenary leader shoots the rebel leader after spotting an opportunity to take over the country himself. Remember children, EvilIsNotAToy! On the flip side, the hero Leng Feng is also a private security contractor. After getting dishonorably discharged from the People's Liberation Army, he is now working as an onboard guard for ships off the coast of Africa. He also picks up two other fellow Chinese contractors as allies, the OldSoldier He Jianguo and the HotBlooded young Zhuo Yifan, who are both serving as guards for a local Chinese-funded oil refinery.

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/{{Anabasis}}'' is about Xenophon's own experiences as a mercenary in Persia and his company's long and dangerous journey home after their employer died. Despite being [[OlderThanFeudalism written in the 4th century BC]], this work served as the inspiration for ''Film/TheWarriors''.
* ''Literature/AnInstinctForWar'': Machiavelli's jail guard used to be a mercenary, and Wallenstein's armies are basically mercenary forces. One of the issues discussed in the book is the question of armies organized for profit, or armies organized to fight for a state.
* ''Literature/AshASecretHistory'' follows Ash, the female commander of a mercenary company in a rather different fifteenth-century Europe.
* ''Franchise/BattleTechExpandedUniverse'': Various mercenary outfits are given considerable focus. The Gray Death Legion, the Kell Hounds, Wolf's Dragoons and Camacho's Caballeros are all rather prominent examples, while somewhat less well regarded in the fandom the Black Thorns got two entire novels dedicated to them in their time, and numerous smaller units put in occasional appearances at the very least as well.
* "Bellarion the Fortunate" by Creator/RafaelSabatini (1926) is set in 15th century Italy, when pretty much all war was conducted through hired mercenaries.
* ''Literature/BetterToBegForgiveness'' follows a team of {{Combat Pragmatist}}s from a PMC called Ripple Creek who're contracted to protect a president, and their attempts to keep him safe after a coup is launched.
* ''Literature/TheBlackCompany'' is a medieval version: a private military cohort, including a handful of wizards. At the start of the first novel, they become the new private army of a recently-[[SealedEvilInACan uncanned]] EvilSorceress — if you hadn't guessed, they're not an especially heroic bunch. [[GrayAndGrayMorality But then neither is anyone else in the setting]].
%%* ''Literature/BrokenAngels'': Carrera's Wedge.
* ''Literature/ChildeCycle'' has several worlds hire mercenaries out as part of the interstellar market. There are two notables:
** The Dorsai, basically a PlanetOfHats of the greatest mercenaries and military minds in the colonized universe.
** The Friendlies. Although from a religious PlanetOfHats, the Friendlies live on poor resource worlds. To survive they are hired out as mercenaries. Unlike the Dorsai though, the Friendlies suck at warfare, [[WeHaveReserves but their cheap price and numbers make up for it.]]
* ''Literature/ChroniclesOfTheKencyrath'': The Kencyr people live in a resource-poor area but are exceedingly good at fighting; they make ends meet by hiring their troops out as mercenaries. Judging by examples in the series, about a quarter of the Kencyr people are mercenaries out on contract at any one time. Their rigid honor code makes them sometimes difficult employees, but their skill keeps them hired.
* ''Literature/ConanTheBarbarian'': Conan often joins or leads mercenary units.
* ''Literature/ConsiderPhlebas'': "Free Companies" are mentioned. The SpacePirates the protagonist hooks up with like to call themselves one, but don't quite make the grade.
%%* ''Literature/CountZero'': Turner belongs to one.
* ''Literature/{{Daemon}}'': Korr Military Solutions, Inc. is one of the [=PMCs=] leading the charge against the Daemon, and they are definitely unsympathetic.
* ''Literature/{{Deathstalker}}'': The Families employ [[{{Mooks}} hordes]] of these. A few of the main characters are ex-mercenaries, as well (and one of them is only helping overthrow the evil empire for the loot that will be in it for her if they succeed).
* ''Literature/TheDeedOfPaksenarrion'' has the title character run away from home to join a mercenary band.
* ''Literature/{{Deverry}}'': The Silver Daggers started out as one of these during the [[SuccessionCrisis Time Of Troubles]]. They were so instrumental in ending the three-way civil war that later generations of kings were afraid that they might be used to overthrow them and put another king on the throne. The Silver Daggers' charter was guaranteed to last in perpetuity due to a boon posthumously granted to their original captain by Maryn I, so instead a law was passed banning all other mercenary units, and prohibiting the Silver Daggers from acting as a single unit ever again, forcing anyone who wanted a mercenary army to hire them one or two at a time — assuming that they could find enough of the now scattered soldiers of fortune to make it worth the effort.
* ''Literature/DirigentMercenaryCorps'' follows an officer in one of these. The planet Dirigent's [[PlanetOfHats hat]] is providing mercenaries and exporting weapons to settled space at large. The DMC is noted to have strict self-imposed limits on what types of contracts they will accept (a violation of these limits in the backstory is viewed as MyGreatestFailure by the organization) and prides itself on its soldiers' professionalism.
* ''Literature/TheDogsOfWar'', in which journalist-turned-author Creator/FrederickForsyth presented a sympathetic view of mercenaries as opposed to the governments and businessmen who start WarForFunAndProfit. His protagonist Cat Shannon is hired to overthrow an African government on behalf of [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Sir James Manson]].
* ''Literature/DraconisMemoria'': The Contractors, aside from being drake hunters and explorers, are also the main military force the Syndicate calls upon in times of armed conflict, constantly waging a series of low-level wars with Corvantine-aligned forces known literally as the "Mercenary Wars".
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'':
** In general, the Red and White Courts of the vampires make use of a number of mortal mercenaries, as does John Marcone's outfit when they need extra firepower. In ''Literature/{{Changes}}'', the Red Court makes heavy use of an unidentified South American PMC to guard the Mayan temple where they're having their happy blood sacrifice holiday.
** Kincaid is a lone gunman for hire who spends most of his time protecting the Archive but is willing to do side jobs if the pay is right.
** [[spoiler: Odin's troops, particularly his valkyries and the einherjar]], are for sale as hired muscle to people in the know.
* The ''Literature/FalkenbergsLegion'' books have a ton of mercenaries, ranging from independent military companies (such as the eponymous Mercenary Legion) to planetary armies sold out to pay for their expenses.
%%* ''Literature/ForbiddenBorders'': Lord Commander Staffa Kar Therma's Companions.
* ''Literature/TheFourHorsemenUniverse'': Nearly all wars in TheVerse are fought between mercenary companies that command fees greater than the GDP of entire terrestrial nation-states.
* In ''Literature/TheGirlFromTheMiraclesDistrict'', there's the Order of Shadows, for which the main character works. Their main service is assassination, but they also dabble in protection, corporate espionage, and warfare.
* ''Literature/HammersSlammers'', from the eponymous Creator/DavidDrake novels. While Drake mostly uses them to tell stories based on historical events, their mercenary nature plays an important role in their characterization. In the series' background, war has become so very expensive that mercenaries are common, and usually the most competent soldiers. The Slammers interact with other mercenary companies and are sometimes shortchanged by their employers. At other times, they play both sides off against each other. The Slammers also originated as an expy of the French Foreign Legion, an ArmyOfThievesAndWhores organized with a promise of citizenship on the planet recruiting them. But after seeing them in action the president who hired them decided he didn't want their kind on his world, so Colonel Hammer packed up and turned them into mercenaries, [[spoiler: until he saw an opportunity to come back and pull off a coup. And after that he hires out companies of the planetary army.]]
* ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'': There's a well-organized Mercenaries' Guild that regulates the profession. While non-Guild mercs tend to be the worst of the stereotype, bonded, licensed companies are consummate professionals. They also get fairly sympathetic treatment by the narrative — most sellswords aren't {{Blood Knight}}s fighting for the thrill or White Knights fighting for a cause; they just have no other way to [[FightingForAHomeland scrape together enough money to buy a farm somewhere]] and settle down.
** In ''[[Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar By The Sword]]'', Kerowyn becomes the leader of the Skybolts, a bonded mercenary company. At the end of the book, the Skybolts negotiate a permanent contract with Valdemar and become part of the army.
** Kero had some help getting started from her grandmother Kethry and her partner Tarma, who in their younger days were members of another company called the Sunhawks.
** On the other hand, the "Tedrel Companies" were a band of unlicensed, un-bonded fighters, largely criminals, recruited by Karse. They succeeded in killing the Valdemaran king, but they also pillaged and looted their way back home, costing Karse more than they expected. This left such a stigma against mercs that Kerowyn had to smooth things over when her Skybolts first arrived in Valdemar.
* ''Literature/{{Hitman}}'': The ICA and Puissance Treize (French for "Power Thirteen") are this, only for assassins.
* In ''Literature/HonorHarrington'', it's mentioned that the Andermanni Empire was founded by a particularly capable mercenary captain named Gustav Andermann. He first captured the planet of New Postdam (though considering that the planetary microorganisms ate chlorophyll, the inhabitants were happy to be captured by anyone who could clean up their planet and give them enough to eat), then went on to build an empire from there (at least partially financed by organizing and hiring out mercenary companies).
* In ''Literature/TheIronTeeth'' a few of the bandits start out their working lives as this until things go south. For example, Vorsha worked as a mercenary — until her employer decided that outlawing her company on trumped-up charges beat paying them. And, if Herad plays her cards right, her band could well function as a decidedly murky company of these, too. She's already made one or two shady deals with lords which lean in this direction.
* ''Literature/ISniper'': Bob Lee Swagger took on rogue members of Graywolf Security. When he later faces down the BigBad, his Graywolf bodyguards don't engage him, as company rules prohibit them from attacking law enforcement personnel (which they suspect Bob to be).
* ''Literature/JourneyToChaos'': The Dragon's Lair mercenary company that Eric joins is composed of sword-swinging warriors, spell-slinging mages, more covert warriors (spies and assassins and such) as well as {{Combat Medic}}s. Most of the time, they're hired to help keep the monster population under control. Since Eric is a novice in this book, he is only hired to do grunt work. Tiza would prefer playing this trope straight.
* ''Literature/KingsOfTheWyld'': The mercenaries, of course, though they're treated far more sympathetically than is normal for this trope. Furthermore, the entire setting is based on a pun regarding the word "band:" Mercenary bands are treated exactly like rock bands, with tours, frontmen, bookers, gigs, and of course money and fame.
* ''Literature/{{Metzada}}'' has a planet of Jews whose only valuable export is mercenary services; which sucks, because their ancestors were exiled to an un{{terraform}}ed planet, and they must constantly import food and air, which is rather pricey. So they'll take any work they can get, even if they utterly hate their clients.
* Creator/RichardKMorgan
** ''Market Forces'' is set in a world where {{Mega Corp}}s are in virtual control of everything, and the world's military and intelligence forces, from the SAS to the CIA, have been privatized.
** The Wedge in ''Broken Angels'', who are an elite company of interstellar mercenaries that includes the protagonist Literature/TakeshiKovacs.
* ''TabletopGame/MutantChronicles'': The tie-in novels have "free-lancers" who perform everything from bounty hunting to corporate espionage. The armies of the {{Mega Corp}}s are technically [=PMCs=], but since corporations are the closest thing to governments left they function more like national armies... with ExecutiveMeddling in the form of company agents who go along on missions to enforce corporate protocol and the bottom line.
* ''Literature/TheOregonFiles'' is centered on a group of mercenaries called The Corporation, led by an ex-CIA HandicappedBadass operating out of a CoolBoat [[WhatAPieceOfJunk with a dilapidated appearance]] named the ''Oregon''.
* ''Literature/PhulesCompany'': The titular Company is part of the Space Legion: technically a branch of the military, but they're often hired by private groups when they're between assignments, which is most of the time. Interestingly, Regular Army units can also occasionally be hired.
* ''Literature/ThePrince'': Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli warns against using hired troops on the basis that mercenary troops are undisciplined, disloyal and poorly motivated, and prone to turning against you.
-->"Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous; and if one holds his state based on these arms, he will stand neither firm nor safe; for they are disunited, ambitious and without discipline, unfaithful, valiant before friends, cowardly before enemies; they have neither the fear of God nor fidelity to men, and destruction is deferred only so long as the attack is; for in peace one is robbed by them, and in war by the enemy."
-->--''CHAPTER XII How Many Kinds Of Soldiery There Are, And Concerning Mercenaries''
* In ''Literature/TheQuestOfTheUnaligned'', the hero starts the book as a ninth-level security chief in the First Tonzimmelian Security Force, which appears to be a cross between this and a police force.
* ''Literature/TheRegiment'' is made up of the T'swa, troops who didn't really care whether they win or lose — what's important is "playing" war skillfully. Since they consider reincarnation a proven fact and thus also don't care if they die, T'swa are very effective soldiers. They're '''not''' motivated by money: advanced psychological placement assigns those children best suited for military training, just as it does for all other facets of T'swa society.
* ''Literature/TheReynardCycle'': Mercenaries abound, both in the form of professional companies who operate independently as well as government-sponsored troops who get loaned out to countries in need of extra fighting men. In ''The Baron of Maleperduys'', Reynard has Bruin recruit an entire army's worth of hired swords in order to combat the Calvarians.
* Author/RobertCrais: Joe Pike used to be a relatively ethical mercenary. Some less-than-ethical ones appear too.
%%* ''Literature/RogueForces'': Patrick [=McLanahan=] is the official head of the Scion PMC, with ex-POTUS Kevin Martindale as the "silent owner".%%Example how?
* The 1990's Gold Eagle pulp series ''SOBS'' (for Soldiers of Barrabas). Nile Barrabas leads a small team of mercenaries as a [[RogueAgent deniable dirty tricks team]] for the US government.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** Mercenaries are generally called "sellswords". They can be hired individually or in an established company. Each sellsword company has its own name, style, and reputation, ranging from the motley and brutal Brave Companions (disparaged as "the Bloody Mummers") to the elite and greatly respected Golden Company. While sellswords are rather notorious for their fickle loyalty and tendency to flee if battles turn sour or the pay runs dry (the only exception being the Golden Company, who make it a point of honor to never break a contract), they are generally regarded as competent warriors. Jaime notes that, unlike many wealthy knights of Westeros, sellswords must survive by their skill at arms alone. Some sellswords can grow quite rich and elevate their social position, the most notable being Bronn, who becomes a knight and marries into a noble family.
** There is another type of mercenary called a "freerider", which is less defined in the books but explained by the author as a mercenary with a horse who attaches himself to an army free of charge and takes his pay in booty after the battle.
** Sellsails are mercenary sailors in it mainly for the loot: buccaneers, basically. Salladhor Saan is a notable example, a wealthy pirate who hires out his fleet to Stannis Baratheon. The Iron Isles, the Sisters, and the Stepstones have a semi-steady side gig of selling the use of whole flotillas or fleets. When they aren't going full-pirate, that is.
** Hedge knights are landless knights who hire themselves out to landed knights or lords to fight in their armies. While granted an air of respectability by their title and the oaths they swear, they are effectively just elite mercenaries.
* ''Literature/StarGuard'': Terran soldiers are described as mercenaries, but in fact, they're conscripted by Earth's puppet government on the orders of the extraterrestrial super-government Central Control and hired out to various planetary wars.
* ''Literature/StarRiskLtd'' series is about a RagtagBunchOfMisfits that operate a PMC that does mainly bodyguard and anti-piracy work. The company hires outside help (like AcePilot Redon Spada) when they need extra manpower. They also repeatedly butt heads with the much larger (and decidedly malevolent) PMC Cerberus Systems.
* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': Present but not particularly common. Most mercenaries are pirates turned privateer for a little legitimacy and extra cash, and they're usually pretty poorly equipped — mercenary fighter squadrons in particular are known for using "Uglies", mashup starfighters cobbled together from different fighters.
** Aurodium Sword is basically a PMC (of the real-life "non-mercenary" sort) that provides personal security for [=VIPs=].
** The [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Mandalorians]]. They usually tend to be rather more competent at their job than other mercenaries, in no small part due to their culture placing high value on combat prowess and their having spent the bulk of their history as warriors and conquerors. They're also better equipped than most mercenaries, with their weapons and especially the distinctive Mandalorian armor being renowned for its high quality.
** The Mistryl Shadow Guard is this, mixed with ''AmazonBrigade''.
** There's a mercenary talent tree for the Saga Edition of the Franchise/StarWars RPG.
** The Red Moons (featured in the short story ''Blaze of Glory'') are a group of mercs who became disgruntled with the New Republic. Feeling that the Republic wasn't doing enough, the Red Moons decided to do something it.
** ''Literature/TheHanSoloTrilogy'': Black Sun has several such companies under its control, and lends one to Durga in ''Rebel Dawn'' to protect Besadii's operation on Ylesia (the Hutts normally rely on Gamorreans and other guards who are essentially thugs, and far less effective) in return for thirty percent of the profits over five years. This makes liberating the slaves there far more difficult for the Corellian rebels and the smugglers which they enlisted.
* Creator/TomKratman:
** In ''Literature/CarrerasLegions'', the hero loses his family in a 9/11 analogue and forms a PMC to avenge them. It grows to be an NGO superpower, and then to the de facto & de jure military of the nation it's based in, Balboa.
** ''Literature/{{Countdown}}'' has M Day, Inc, founded by a former US Army officer who was forced out of the service around the end of the US involvement in Afghanistan. An excursis, with a publishing date following the period of the novel series, also talks of the rise of other [=PMCs=] in the face of the governments commanding national militaries becoming unwilling or unable to act against the rising tide of barbarism destroying civilization.
* ''Literature/VattasWar'' deals with these heavily, particularly the Mackensee Military Assistance Corporation whom Kylara Vatta, TheCaptain, both hires and is hired by. The [=MMAC=] is depicted as being ''very'' strict in who they will do business with, with their contracts spelling out certain actions their employers might take where they will consider their contract terminated on the spot and withdraw immediately, in order to avoid any association with this trope's negative trappings.
* ''Literature/{{Videssos}}'': The Empire of Videssos hires mercenaries from neighboring countries to fight the Yezda. Each country specializes in supplying different types of troops.
* ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'': The Dendarii Mercenaries appear to be entirely this; in actuality [[spoiler:they're Barrayaran-employed irregulars (and still not averse to taking lucrative contracts that don't conflict with that)]]. While several galactic powers, and a few individuals, have figured out the truth, it's still not common knowledge. Even among the Dendarii themselves. This cover works because there are plenty of bona-fide mercenary companies around. The books include Randall's Rangers (before Cavilo took charge) and the Oseran Mercenaries (before [[GuileHero Miles]] [[XanatosSpeedChess dazzled them]] into working for him). Other companies are referenced as existing at a variety of scales.
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'':
** Elayne has to turn to mercenaries to help secure her claim to the Lion Throne. They are not played with the remotest hint of sympathy. On the other hand, they're not portrayed as avaricious turncoats, like so many other works, either. At one point a mercenary captain tries to ask Elayne for more money after saving her from an unanticipated threat, and she points out that he was acting within the bounds of his contract and must continue to do so. He grumbles, but the group continue to fight on her behalf. She isn't worried about their loyalty, since no one would hire a mercenary band that changed sides in the middle of a campaign.
** On the other hand, the (second founding) Band of the Red Hand, while loosely associated with the Dragon Reborn, has spent the majority of its existence effectively taking mercenary work so they could keep paying the soldiers' wages while their leader was absent. They're played sympathetically, contain a reasonable fraction of the MauveShirt characters of the series, and besides a bit of lovable roguery, are among the most professional military organizations in the world — and damn proud of it!
* ''Literature/TheWhiteCompany'' by Arthur Conan Doyle involves an English "free company", as they used to be called, being raised in England and Calais to travel to Spain and help Pedro the Cruel regain his throne.
* ''Literature/WorldWarZ'' has a self-proclaimed mercenary [he doesn't like the politically correct terms of PMC or Private Contractor] recounting his experience of the war. He admits that he's become "addicted to murder" and worries about what life will be like when he has no more zombies to kill.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/TwentyFour'': The seventh season has the Starkwood corporation, who, among other things, give weapons to genocidal African rebels in exchange for permission to use innocent villagers for weapons testing and plan attacks on American soil to get Senate investigations off their backs.
* In ''Series/AmericanOdyssey'', a PMC named OSELA features in the pilot. Their troops don't much care for adherence to rules of engagement or for basic courtesies between regular US forces and mercs.
* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' reinvents the Comicbook/{{Blackhawk}}s as this, possibly because they're an existing DC military team whose name ''already'' sounds a bit like "Blackwater".
* ''Series/BabylonFive'':
** One episode features a group of [[SpacePirates Raiders]] acting as one for a rogue Centauri nobleman. In the end, they betray him, as they know they can't fight the military of the Centauri Republic (a VestigialEmpire but still a superpower), but get offed by [[spoiler: [[BigBad the Shadows]] ]] before they can do more than tell their employer about it. The ExpandedUniverse mentions that Raider groups will sometimes hire themselves out to various governments, effectively acting like this.
** The Belt Alliance started as a union for workers in the asteroid belt that armed themselves to fight against Raiders and PMC groups working for companies trying to take their mines. After FirstContact, the Belt Alliance evolved into a sort of shipping company/shipping union hybrid (with the single largest privately owned merchant fleet in the galaxy, as most of Earth's merchants work for them), while their armed forces continued fighting Raiders, both to defend Belt Alliance shipping and as PMC for other companies. It's mentioned that, in spite of their antiquated equipment (limited to light weapons by Earth Alliance law), they are ''very'' effective against Raiders due to having focused all their weapons on killing fighters, [[TheDreaded with the very presence of Belt Alliance escorts keeping away the smarter ones]].
* ''Series/BurnNotice'': One episode's villain, Ryder Stahl, is the owner of a company called Security Associates. Mike's cover ID was of a Kenyan diamond dealer who needs a village... removed.
* ''Series/{{Cannon}}'': In "A Flight of Hawks", Cannon's investigation leads him to a band of mercenaries who are planning to kick off a brushwar in Africa.
* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': A couple episodes of deal with the villain of the week using mercenaries.
* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': The [=UnSub=] of one episode is a ColdSniper who initially appears to be a SerialKiller, but is in fact a mercenary [[SerialKillingsSpecificTarget who is making his kills look like a serial killer]] to mislead authorities, tracking down a battered wife who is in hiding. However, the real villain of the episode is her husband and the sniper's boss, a CorruptCorporateExecutive who works for the powerful and politically tied mercenary company "Black Cross", he actually manages to be less sympathetic than the actual killer.
* ''Series/{{Damages}}'': The main antagonists in the fourth season are the owner of a mercenary firm called High Star, yet another Blackwater BrandX, and a corrupt CIA agent who he did black-ops work for.
* In ''Series/FlashForward2009'', one set of antagonists are a PMC called Jericho.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
** Davos hires his old friend, the notorious pirate Salladhor Saan, to provide additional ships for Stannis Baratheon. In Season 4, he also proposes hiring the expensive Golden Company to aid in Stannis' war.
** Daenerys goes to Astapor to purchase Unsullied, eunuch slaves who are considered the finest soldiers in the world. Later she also meets up with the Second Sons, one of the many "Free Companies" utilized by the various cities and states of Essos.
** Westeros is also filled with independent sellswords and hedge knights who bounce from job to job, most notably Tyrion's lancer Bronn. In fact, Bronn is eventually knighted as "Ser Bronn of the Blackwater"! Though this is just a funny coincidence and not an intentional reference to the real-life PMC...
** After being exiled from Westeros as a fugitive, Jorah became a sellsword and served with the legendary Golden Company for a while, before meeting Daenerys.
* ''Series/{{Highlander}}'' had a plot with an immortal using his private army to invade the house of a friend of Tessa's after the guy's son raped the immortal's (adopted) daughter.
* ''Series/Jericho2006'': During the first season, the PMC Ravenwood tries to loot the town of Jericho (and successfully raids the nearby towns of Rogue River and New Bern). In season 2, it is learned that they are a subsidiary of the EvilInc BigBad, Jennings & Rall.
* In ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'', Namba Heavy Industries manages to be this with their Guardians, mass-produced MechaMooks that they're willing to give use of to anyone with enough money to buy them. They later expand into selling use of Riders and Kaisers to the highest bidder, with the intent being to mass produce ''those'' and sell them to the highest bidder. [[spoiler:Of course they kept the strongest version, the Hard Guardians, reserved for their own private use.]] It's to the point a large portion of the armies of ''every single faction in the war'' is composed entirely of Guardians given to them by Namba. In fact, the entire reason Namba helped start the CivilWar in the first place was [[WarForFunAndProfit precisely because of that.]]
* ''Series/KnightRider 2008'': The villains of the pilot episode are from the really shamelessly transparent "[[BrandX Blackriver]]" corporation, an organization of evil US military contractors. It's not exactly clear how stealing the control codes for a US military satellite and selling them on the black market to enemies of the US, when the FBI knows from the start that you're the ones behind it, plays into this business model. You would think that sort of thing would be bad for business.
* ''Series/TheLastShip'' features a rare heroic example. Tex Nolan is a contractor who joins the ''Nathan James'''s crew at Guantanamo, where his company had been hired to guard Al-Qaeda prisoners. His past is a bit ambiguous, though he's [[NonIndicativeName actually from Reno]], is a single father, is former US military (it's implied that he was with Army Special Operations Forces), and signed up for the Gitmo contract because it was easy money. Tex is friendly, happy-go-lucky, and an all-around good guy. He just happens to be very good at doing bad things to bad people. He's also [[WouldNotShootACivilian very scrupulous about who he's willing to shoot]].
* ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'': In "Boots on the Ground", the VictimOfTheWeek is an activist who has been infiltrating two rival private contractors. This leaves plenty of suspects with military training.
* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': In "[[Recap/LeverageS01E02TheHomecomingJob The Homecoming Job]]", the Villain of the Week is a PMC Blackwater {{Expy}} that shot up a group of US Army reservists. Their client was one of the wounded soldiers who was unable to pay for his medical expenses. While it's initially assumed that the reason for the shooting was simply that the mercenaries panicked, it's later found that [[spoiler: the company was actually stealing money from Iraq and using it to bribe a Congressman in order to continue to be given no-bid contracts]].
%%* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': Martin Keamy and his men.
* ''Series/MadamSecretary'': "Another Benghazi" has Vesuvian, a PMC that Secretary of State Elizabeth [=McCord=] had criticized in an article she wrote in her academic career for being too quick on the trigger, but whom she is now forced to hire as extra security for the US embassy in Yemen after Congress won't spring for Green Berets. Then the embassy is bombed and Arabic-language news blames Vesuvian for shooting first. [[spoiler:{{Reconstruction}} in the end: Vesuvian ''didn't'' shoot first and actually saved the ambassador's life by getting him out before the bomb went off, and the CEO of the company credits [=McCord's=] article for prompting him to make several changes in company policy to cut down on civilian casualties.]]
* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' has to deal with [=PMC=]s from time to time. This includes busting one of their commanders for illegal bounty hunting.
* ''Series/TheNightManager'': Roper has a small army of mercenaries in his employ from across the world, whom he calls the "real United Nations".
* In ''Series/{{Occupation}}'', a drama set during the Iraq War, an ex-British army soldier teams up with an American to form a PMC, which recruits another character.
* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'':
** In "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS04E02 Nautilus]]", the number of the week is hunted by a "Private Military Contractor" group known as "Silverpool". Reese even mentions Blackwater when describing them.
** In "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS04E03 Wingman]]", Blackwater is name-dropped again as the former employers of "Egret".
** Mr. Dillinger, Reese's predecessor as [[PersonWithTheClothing "The Man in the Suit"]], is former Blackwater. This is clearly done for RuleOfSymbolism as he is OnlyInItForTheMoney and tries to sell out Harold Finch.
** Decima Technologies is a private intelligence agency who are introduced as a VillainOfTheWeek stealing secrets for the Chinese but turn out to be an ArcVillain hoping to take control of [[BenevolentAI The Machine]] (and later [[EvilCounterpart Samaritan]]). While at first this appears to be to corner the market in selling information, they actually want to establish a DeusEstMachina for reasons based on [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans ideology]] rather than profit.
* ''Series/ThePhilanthropist'': One episode has a corrupt group of mercenaries deliberately sabotaging peace efforts in Kosovo in order to sell arms. The rest of the PMC is not corrupt, however, and fires the corrupt ones when presented with evidence.
* ''Series/TheProfessionals'': Bodie is a former mercenary. This provides the basis for the plot in a couple of episodes.
* ''Series/ThePunisher2017'': Billy Russo, after leaving the Marines, started a military contractor firm called Anvil, and he recruits former soldiers to serve as his operatives and do wetwork for Rawlins.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'': This is technically Teal'c's status, to make it legally possible for him to join the team. He's actually an alien freedom fighter, but on paper, he's a security contractor at Cheyenne Mountain. This also gives him an official job and paycheck, allowing him to start living in an off-base apartment [[HumanAliens while letting people think he's an African immigrant rather than an extraterrestrial one]].
* ''Series/TheUnit'' featured a company called "Blackthorne", which tried to recruit one of the members.
* ''Series/TrueDetective'': In season 2, Woodrugh is a former member of a private military contractor and served in Iraq. It's implied that he committed war crimes while there. Other members of his outfit get involved in the case he's investigating, and he's not happy to see them.

[[folder:Music]]
* "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" by Music/WarrenZevon. Roland is a Norwegian mercenary hired to fight in the Congo Crisis of the 1960s. He is betrayed by a fellow mercenary and goes seeking revenge, [[{{Determinator}} despite being dead]]. It's then implied he goes on to become a spirit of conflict, following the major ideological wars across the world and in some cases inciting them ("Patty Hearst/heard the burst/of Roland's Thompson gun/and bought it"). Notably, David Lindell, the man who co-wrote the song with Zevon and inspired him to write it, was a former mercenary.
* "Contractor" by Music/LambOfGod
* "Ride Across The River" by Music/DireStraits.
* "Mercenaries (Ready For War)" by John Cale.

[[folder:Radio]]
* ''Radio/RevoltingPeople'' is a comedy set in Baltimore just prior to the American Revolution. With the exception of the CO and the senior sergeant, all of the "British" soldiers in town, an entire brigade of them, are Hessian mercenaries.

[[folder:Roleplay]]
* In ''Roleplay/DarwinsSoldiers'', [[ElaborateUndergroundBase Pelvanida]] guards are explicitly stated to from an unnamed private security company. And they carry some ''serious'' firepower.
* ''Roleplay/{{Netland}}''`s TOAST Industries contracts out its own internal force group, as well as selling hardware to other [=PMCs=] (and the [[PlayerCharacter PCs]]).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/AgeOfAquarius'' has a heroic PMC called ЗАЩИТНИК ("DEFENDER"). Like the [=SeeD=] from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' ([[{{Expy}} by which they are inspired]]), mercenary activities are only a front for their more noble goal.
* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' is full of mercenary armies. Many of the high-grade mercenary armies are a match for or even superior to the best armies of the various governments, and some can even get titles and holdings in the neo-feudal system of the 31st century. The setting also has both honorable mercs (the Gray Death Legion, Wolf's Dragoons, The Kell Hounds) and dishonorable ones (the Crater Cobras, Little Richard's Panzer Brigade, the Waco Rangers). Many Pirate groups are failed mercenary units. Running a small Mercenary Company is the standard campaign mode for the game. A few notable examples:
** The Gray Death Legion was one of the few Inner Sphere units to come out with wins in their initial clashes with the Clans, and for their service to House Steiner were given the planet of Glengarry; Grayson Carlyle himself was given the title of Baron. Twenty years prior to the Clans, they made a major LostTechnology discovery and shared it with the Inner Sphere, putting the kibosh on [[NGOSuperPower ComStar's]] plan for technological monopoly.
** Wolf's Dragoons were originally a "scouting party" sent by Clan Wolf to infiltrate the Inner Sphere before the invasion (and sabotage the invasion that Clan Wolf was opposed to). They quickly distinguished themselves with their prowess and [[LostTechnology LosTech]] and were ceded the world of Outreach, which they made into the Mercenary capital of the Sphere. When the Clans invaded they revealed their origins to the Successor States and sided with them instead of the Clans. Unfortunately the Word of Blake nuked Outreach during their jihad and destroyed most of the Dragoons, though Clan Wolf evacuated two dozen Dragoons and several civilians.
* In ''TabletopGame/BrokenGears'', the Australian Army also doubles as a large [=PMC=], because this way the Australian government can pay for its costs (they need to be large enough to prevent a potential British take-over of the place) and get hard currency for international trade, and the soldiers also get live fire training.
* ''TabletopGame/Cyberpunk2020'': This is the meat of the game. The most conspicuous [=PMCs=] are Arasaka and Militech, two of the largest corporations of the game's setting, and the Lazarus Group — featured on a splatbook and that is a full-fledged large private army.
* ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'':
** The real-life ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Canopy Constellis Group]]'', a real-life conglomerate that includes [=PMC=] subsidiaries such as Academi (Former Blackwater) and Triple Canopy, is a possible employer for the [=PCs=]. However, since the writers [[ShownTheirWork did their research]], they're a more realistic and accurate version of this trope. They are mostly very well-armed security guards that work in government contracts in war zones. The job is notable for its lack of stability and high layoff rates, with most of the military contractors being veterans and ex-military without any other marketable skills. In short, working for an actual PMC sucks.
** The sourcebook also offers [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_intelligence_agency Private Intelligence Agencies]] such as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CACI Consolidated Analysis Center]] or [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booz_Allen_Hamilton Booz Allen Hamilton]] (The same which employed infamous whistleblower Edward Snowden).
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' has any number of ways to involve mercs.
** Hobgoblins, are generally more of a militaristic society than one composed of [=PMCs=], but that just makes them more valuable when they do hire their units out to others.
** The ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' setting has several groups, such as the troops of House Deneith and House Tharashk's ogre/troll contacts in Droaam. For non-House versions, the Red Gauntlet regiment and the Manifest Legion (mercenary ''summoners'') are also up for contracts. The setting's Gnolls have also decided to position themselves on every side of every conflict under the reasoning that that way they'll grow in power and influence no matter who wins. They refuse to fight each other though.
** ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'': ''[[http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=13961 Gold and Glory]]'' is a {{sourcebook}} specifically for these, along with inherent adventure hooks. With understanding that small adventuring bands impossible to list due to great numbers and overall turnover rate also do a lot of the small-scale work in this field, and sometimes happen to hire, be hired by, or grow into larger mercenary groups.
** Early editions had rules for "henchmen" and "hirelings," who are essentially NPC mercenaries paid to accompany the adventuring party. Later editions continue to publish rules for them, but their focus has faded to an afterthought.
** Many neutral and evil-aligned adventuring parties (and even some good ones) are official or ''de facto'' mercenaries, accepting payment to perform some dangerous task or fight an enemy.
* ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' features Direct Action, a hypercorp formed from the remnants of old earth's militaries, they act as the [[OneNationUnderCopyright Planetary Consortium's]] primary enforcers. Since there are few traditional nation-states remaining there are hundreds of smaller [=PMCs=] including the Ultimates, a group of SocialDarwinist {{Nietzsche Wannabe}}s who hire themselves out as mercs while waiting for an opportunity to seize control of the system.
* ''TabletopGame/FadingSuns'' has the Muster guild, which offers many kinds of muscle for hire, but began as, and is still mostly made of, mercenaries.
* Creator/GamesWorkshop games:
** ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'':
*** The Dogs of War are an entire army of mercenaries who mostly hail from Tilea, [[FantasyCounterpartCulture the setting's analogue]] of Renaissance Italy and the Condottieri. More individualistic examples are the Regiments of Renown, legendary mercenaries with interesting special rules that can be attached to other army lists. They come with various individual quirks, such as the Birdmen of Catrazza, who fly into battle on leather wing-harnesses; Tichi-Huichi's Raiders, raptor-riding skinks who only fight for those who can pay with the golden tablets of the Old Ones; Asarnil the Dragonlord, an exiled elven noble who dreams of returning home laden with gold and glory; and Long Drong's Slayer Pirates, dwarfen corsairs who specialize in retrieving other companies' pay chests and stealing the enemy's. They're ''extremely'' pay-motivated — they use their pay chests as battle standards, and will rout if these are lost.
*** Maneaters are [[OurOgresAreHungrier Ogres]] who have returned to their homelands after serving as mercenaries abroad, with new skills to share (and often a costume inspired by their former employers). When the Ogre Kingdoms were first introduced, there were also rules for other armies to hire Ogre units as Dogs of War.
*** The Empire fields Free Companies, militia, or mercenary companies that support their standing armies. This is despite the fact that regular Empire infantry already dress like and are organized like real-life Landsknecht mercenaries.
** ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
*** The Kroot who serve the T'au Empire as auxiliaries secretly do some mercenary work on the side, to ensure that they get [[CannibalismSuperpower plenty of useful genetic traits from their prey.]] There used to be an official Kroot Mercenaries army list, though it hasn't been updated for recent additions and most of its units had to be converted in some way.
*** [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Orks]] and [[SpaceElves Aeldari]] have bands of [[SpacePirates Freebooterz and Corsairs]], respectively, that occasionally hire themselves out to clients — which sometimes include Imperial nobles, or even TabletopGame/{{Inquisitor}}s, who want some plausible deniability. Some [[AlwaysChaoticEvil Drukhari]] bands make the same offer, [[FateWorseThanDeath which most of their customers regret later]].
*** The squads of Marauders who often fight alongside [[ArmyOfThievesAndWhores Renegade & Heretic armies]] are a mix of corrupted [[SpacePirates pirates]] and mercenaries who fight because they are being very well paid to do so rather than for the glory of the Dark Gods. To represent their status as more professional soldiers, the 8th Edition rules make Renegade Marauders one of the most reliable units in a Renegades & Heretics force, but they are the only infantry unit in the army that cannot be dedicated to one of the Chaos Gods.
*** [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame The Squats]] are a highly mercantile species of [[HumanSubspecies Abhuman]] who approach every aspect of life as a business, including warfare. Squat mercenaries are highly sought after and renowned for their skill, determination, and reliability, especially when fighting against Orks. Early editions of the ''Epic'' scale version of the game represented this by allowing any army, except [[ArchEnemy Orks]] and [[TheLegionsOfHell Chaos]], to include companies of Squad mercenaries in their force.
*** Many minor Xenos races, such as the [[LizardFolk Loxatl]] and the [[SnakePeople Sslyth]], willingly serve as mercenaries for other alien races, the forces of Chaos, or even radical Imperial forces. What they ask for in return can vary, ranging from precious gems, the looted possessions of the enemy, or even their choice of slaves. Such races are usually confined to the background material but when they do turn up in the game itself they are often incorporated into a specific faction's army list or as optional rules.
*** The [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Demiurg]] often act as mercenary forces for other races, [[ArchEnemy especially those under threat from Ork raids]]. ''TabletopGame/BattlefleetGothic'' represents this in-game by allowing any fleet, except [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Orks]], [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Tyranids]] and [[RobotWar Necrons]], are able to hire Demiurg cruisers as mercenaries. [[OnlyInItForTheMoney Due to their lack of investment in the battle]] however, these mercenary ships will attempt to disengage from combat should they suffer too much damage.
** In ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'', the Grundstok Company, also known as the Grundcorps, are a group of professional mercenaries who hire out their services to the mercantile [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Kharadron]] [[SteamPunk sky-fleets]] to protect them from the vicious aerial monstrosities of the Mortal Realms, as well as any other threat they might face. Highly trained and outfitted with advanced weaponry, the Grundscorps are well worth their high price.
*** There are now rules for ten explicitly "we'll work for anybody" mercenary companies. You can incorporate one of them into your army, giving you access to units that normally would not ally with your faction.
** Fyreslayers are a culture of dwarf mercenaries, with armies all across the Mortal Realms, with the reputation that they'll fight for or against just about anyone, but only accept payment in magical ur-gold. The truth is a little more complicated: ur-gold is actually formed from the blood of their shattered war god, Grimnir, which was scattered across the realms eons ago. By releasing its magical energies, they hope they can resurrect their lost god. They keep that part a secret, though, to keep anyone else from trying to gather it for themselves, leading to them being looked down on as OnlyInItForTheMoney.
* In ''TabletopGame/GURPSTechnomancer'', GHOST (Global Hazard Operations and Security Techniques), the magical security/monster hunter arm of [[MegaCorp Leviathan Investment Group]], is also known to take military contracts around the world (especially TheMagocracy of Surinam, which Leviathan is heavily involved with) generally hiring ex-US Army war-mages.
* The ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'' has Blackfire, a PMC that's well-connected and clued in to the nature of the supernatural. Whether they're upstanding or bastards depends entirely on the Storyteller, though the sample adventure that comes with them implies that they're not entirely on the up-and-up — mainly because one of the three heads of the company got possessed by a fragment of an [[EldritchAbomination ancient spirit]] that desperately wants out of its current prison.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Orpheus}}'', from the TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness line, has a company called [=NextWorld=], a private contracting firm that deals with security, surveillance, and protection, while having much more questionable dealings under the table. And they have access to the same methods and technology that the other ghost projecting firms do, so they can deal with supernatural issues or exploit spiritual abilities and loopholes to get the job done. They're even hired at one point by a mysterious third party to take out Orpheus Group, which they do with great success, and continue to ruthlessly hound the survivors and remnants afterward because their client didn't technically tell them when to stop.
* ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'': The [[LegionOfLostSouls Legion Martien]] is often hired out to various Martian principalities as mercenaries. Some Martian Freebooters bands also count, in particular the Mavericks, who are effectively American deniable assets.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'': This is an essentially driving force behind the game.
** The player characters are "Shadowrunners" — mercenaries assembled on-demand like a RagtagBunchOfMisfits in as [[TheCaper heist flick]]. Of course there's nothing stopping the DM from ''making'' a PMC for the players to join, and indeed many shadowrunners incorporate their teams, becoming small [=PMCs=].
** The best-known subsidiary of arms manufacturer Ares Macrotech is Knight Errant, which is essentially a [[NGOSuperpower first-world army for hire]].
** Seattle's law enforcement has been [[LawEnforcementInc contracted out]] to the megacorp Lone Star Security Services since 2023 — when the Mayor of Seattle's response to a police strike was to hire contractors and ''dissolve his police force.''
** More conventional [=PMCs=] do exist in the game's backstory — the most prominent are [=MET2000=], Tsunami, 10,000 Daggers, and Combat Inc.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Talisman}}'': The Mercenary is a particularly useful follower if you have the gold to burn. He will add 3 to your strength on combat, but only if you pay him a gold. He also costs 3 gold to hire.
* Mercenaries in ''TabletopGame/TheDarkEye'' do have their own demigod, who demands, that they either fight for the "good fight"[[note]]violent and bloody[[/note]] or for the "good gold", both of which is strictly defined. His priests will ensure, that they are paid what they deserve, and are a one-man army by themselves.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'': Since many characters have a military background, they often find themselves doing mercenary work. Basing a campaign around the characters being in a mercenary outfit was common, and supplements, rulebooks, and premade adventures were issued to support such campaigns.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warbirds}}'' player characters are, as a default, assumed to be employed by one of these in the form of the Guild. Since the Guild can provide superior upgrades and weaponry to its {{Ace Pilot}}s, and has control over titanium (much of which it uses to make its planes better), it's adept at poaching up-and-coming pilots from various countries. It also doesn't object to hiring out a squadron to each side in a conflict; since pilots in Guild warbirds are likely to survive going down, as long as it's making more from the clients than it's spending on replacement planes, it's satisfied.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/AceCombat'':
** ''VideoGame/AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar'' has beleaguered Ustio hire mercenaries to bolster their forces. You, Cipher, are one of them. Admittedly, though, no organizations are outright named.
** In ''VideoGame/AceCombatJointAssault'', player character Antares is a newcomer to Martinez Security, another one of these.
** ''VideoGame/AceCombatInfinity'''s campaign starts the player out as a new arrival to a company called "Arrows Air Defense and Security", flying as the new number four for their Bone Arrow squadron.
** The Alicorn DLC campaign for ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown'' has [[PsychoForHire crazy PMC pilots Rage & Scream]] from Mimic Squadron who work for GRGM, which [[AllThereInTheManual articles on the game's Japanese website]] reveal stands for [[VideoGame/AceCombat3Electrosphere General Resource]] Guardian Mercenaries.
%%** The Scarface squadron from the [[VideoGame/AirCombat first]] [[VideoGame/AceCombat2 two]] games seems to be one of these, as well.
* ''VideoGame/ActOfWar'': In the ''High Treason'' expansion pack for ''Act of War: Direct Action'', powerful mercenaries can be purchased for a limited time with "insurance" money, if the mercenaries survive half of the money is given back to you, if not you don't see a return on your deposit. The mercenaries are tiered as "Official" (Heavy Infantry and Medics), "Unofficial" (AA-Guns and Tanks), and "Illegal" (Fighter Jets and Low Yield Nukes). They also play a minor role in the storyline. When Richter is forced to go rogue and flees the USA, he ends up having to rely on mercenaries for a few missions. The missions contain some debating regarding the morality of using mercenaries during which it is mentioned that a good chunk of the mercenaries were trained by the US even though Richter remains ethically opposed to their use.
* In ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII'', the Italians get the Condottiero as a second unique unit, a melee infantryman that gets a combat bonus against gunpowder troops. What makes them true to the trope is that the Italians' opponents ''also'' can recruit this unit at their own Barracks, representing how the historical ''condottieri'' were willing to change sides if a foe made a better offer.
* ''VideoGame/AirRivals'': Players start as mercenaries under [=FreeSKA=] and only decide which of the two sides to join at level 11.
* In ''VideoGame/AliensVsPredator2'', the General Rykov's Iron Bears are mercenaries being employed by the science team on [=LV1201=], involved in morally dubious operations. After the arrival of the Colonial Marines, they attempt to strand them deep within the Alien hive while Rykov and the Predator stalk each other.
* ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'' has The Veteran Combat Initiative. They can end up as your allies or your enemies — or one and later the other — depending on your choices. They're mostly evil though, being comprised of dishonorably discharged veterans and being led by [[AffablyEvil Conrad Marburg]].
* ''Videogame/ArmA'' has Black Element debut in the ''[=ArmA=]: Queen's Gambit'' ExpansionPack and return as ION, Inc. in the ''Arma 2: Private Military Company'' [[DownloadableContent DLC]], by which time the [[{{Expy}} Blackwater resemblance]] was much more overt, complete with the renaming, international condemnation for involvement in the deaths of civilians, military/intel connections[[note]]Mark Reynolds is former CIA, and quite a few of the team in ''PMC'' are former servicemen[[/note]], a case of [[CorruptCorporateExecutive additional motives besides the contract]][[note]]the big reveal of ''Private Military Company''[[/note]], disavowed operators[[note]]the player character and his team after and due to the events of ''Queen's Gambit''[[/note]], being the self-proclaimed "''North America's largest private service contractor''"...
** ION, Inc. and its parent company Vrana Industries would reappear in ''VideoGame/TakeOnHelicopters''[[note]]first as clients, then as the primary antagonists[[/note]] and once more in ''Arma 3'', suggesting that business hadn't been lacking in the twenty-plus year gap between ''Take On Helicopters'' and ''Arma 3''... if in a less stereotypical direction for a PMC and its parent corporation[[note]]as corporate sponsors for the in-universe host/provider of Arma 3's small arms challenge mode[[/note]].
** The big reveal in ''Private Military Company'' is that [[spoiler:a certain unspecified government contacted ION, Inc., directly or through Vrana, and wanted Chinese involvement in Takistan's nuclear program covered up]], and whether or not he himself or ION/Vrana were paid off, field leader Mark Reynolds is onboard with that even if it means [[spoiler:squelching out on the protection contract with the UN weapons inspection team]]. The player can choose to [[spoiler:fight their way through pro-Reynolds ION contractors to gun down Reynolds and expose the nuclear program and the attempted cover-up]], but the canonical ending was that [[spoiler:the player and Henry Asano joined Reynolds in killing off the UN weapons inspectors — along with any ION contractors not already in on the plan — and successfully covered up the whole thing]], with the player character getting [[spoiler:a hefty bonus and moving up to ION Head of Operations]] by the time of ''Take On Helicopters''.
* ''VideoGame/ArmoredCore'' seems to have moved away from an official PMC as of ''Armored Core 4'', making the player more of a private mercenary for hire. There's still an organization of some sort backing the player, but it's only alluded to, never really discussed in detail. Collared is pretty much just the Lynx's hangout, as its members are already sold to specific corporations or are freelancers. The organization is pretty much tradition by this point.
* ''VideoGame/ArmyOfTwo'': The player characters work for a PMC.
** The final mission of the game is an assault on the [[spoiler:very same (corrupt) PMC headquarters that the player characters have been working for most of the game, and at the end, they decide to found their own PMC ''that won't plot attacks on American forces in order to build a case for privatizing the U.S. military'']].
** In the sequel, ''The 40th Day'', most of the 40th Day initiative are stated to be various mercenaries working for [=PMCs=], with enough collective strength to take over ''and'' occupy the city of Shanghai.
* ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'':
** In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'', Ezio can hire squads of ''condottieri'' troops to assist him in battle. They can't parkour around on rooftops, but they are very tough and carry heavy weapons, making them superior to most of the city guard. In addition, they allow Ezio to make flanking moves and attack enemy troops from behind, which are one-hit-kills.
** The majority of the enemies in both ''Assassin's Creed II'' and ''[[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood Brotherhood]]'' are also ''condotierri'' working for the Borgia family. There's also a distinct visual difference between the Borgia mercenaries and the ''condotierri'' working for Mario Auditore and Bartolomeo (and, by extension, the Assassins).
** In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'', the player can run into Hessians, who are considered [[EliteMooks elite mooks]]. The player themselves is stated to be a privateer working for the Colonials during the naval missions.
* The ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries'' features two different private armies of amoral mercenaries, that are hired by the villains to cause trouble in Gotham City, and also to try and fight {{Franchise/Batman}} as well:
** TYGER Security from ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'', which seem to be a mixture of this trope and LawEnforcementInc. After [[CorruptPolitician Mayor Quincy Sharp]] buys out a large portion of Gotham City and converts it into a massive prison complex called Arkham City, he grants TYGER official jurisdiction over the area as a quasi-police force (instead of the GCPD). Acting under direct orders from Sharp's accomplice [[PsychoPsychologist Dr. Hugo Strange]], they are responsible for preventing all inmates from escaping (and using lethal force to do so); and despite being there to ''supposedly'' maintain law and order inside Arkham City, they instead allow all the violent convicts and lunatics to fight each other to death over control of food and territory. TYGER personnel also kidnap innocent people around Gotham and then throw them into Arkham City without any due process, leaving them at the mercy of the aforementioned convicts and lunatics. And at the climax of the game, they start initiating "Protocol 10"; which is Dr. Strange's (and [[spoiler:ComicBook/RasAlGhul's]]) secret evil plan to [[spoiler:[[FinalSolution massacre the entire population of Arkham City]], including both guilty and innocent prisoners alike, until Batman himself has to stop this deadly project]].
** The Militia from ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', which is a very large mercenary army that is commanded by the eponymous Arkham Knight (AKA [[spoiler:[[ComicBook/RedHood Jason Todd]]]]) and {{ComicBook/Deathstroke}} (Slade Wilson). They have been hired by ComicBook/TheScarecrow (Jonathan Crane) to invade Gotham City on the night of Halloween, in order to help assist with Scarecrow's plans to gas the whole city with his [[SupernaturalFearInducer fear toxin]], and attempt to finally defeat Batman once and for all. The Militia are comprised mostly of former (U.S.) military veterans who have experienced combat in war zones around the world. Unlike Gotham's homegrown criminal organizations, they behave like an occupying paramilitary force and have established outposts all over the city; with their soldiers patrolling the streets both on foot and riding in armored cars, while also controlling a very large arsenal of [[AttackDrone unmanned tanks and helicopters]] to try and counter Batman's heavily upgraded [[WeaponizedCar Batmobile]].
* ''VideoGame/BattleBrothers'' has the player running a mercenary company in a low fantasy medieval setting. The player can seek out and negotiate contracts including acting as animal control for villages, fighting the undead and other monsters, hunting bandits, or augmenting military forces in conventional warfare.
* ''VideoGame/BattleTech'':
** Markham's Marauders are the PlayerCharacter's mercenary company. They're presented as a small-time, company-sized outfit that mostly do jobs in the Periphery, and one out of many merc companies in the Inner Sphere. The Marauders ([[CanonImmigrant canonically]]) served the Aurigan Restoration during the Aurigan CivilWar and provided employment and training for several [=MechWarriors=]-in-exile that would later go on to serve in the royal guard of the Aurigan Coalition.
** The Grey Death Legion also makes an appearance during a Flashpoint and as part of a recurring event where they'll headhunt one of your [=MechWarriors=].
%%* ''VideoGame/{{Blackwater}}'', based on the RealLife PMC group.
* ''VideoGame/BladestormTheHundredYearsWar'' has the player as an up-and-coming mercenary working for the English and the French in the eponymous war. Although there's no official group or organization monitoring the mercenaries, there are a lot of them working in sort of a loose-knit coalition, such that even facing off against a mercenary on the battlefield doesn't mean you can't be friends. Kicking the snot out of the English or French King, on the other hand...
* ''VideoGame/{{Bombshell}}'''s protagonist is ex-military and working for a mercenary outfit. Her departure from the military was nominally an honorable discharge, but she had a big cloud hanging over her due to a particularly prominent failure that cost her [[AnArmAndALeg an arm]] and her [[TrueCompanions team]]. She considers the mercenary outfit (and the [[ArtificialLimbs new arm]] they gave her) to be her second chance.
* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'': The Crimson Lance was this to the Atlas Corporation, actively seeking the Eridian technology in Pandora. In ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'', Hyperion is powerful enough to not only have a huge robot army, but a private army consisting of soldiers that can deploy turrets, snipers with ridiculous accuracy, and Infiltrators that can cloak and attack you with their shotguns. And in ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'', Dahl is revealed to have a SpaceMarine private army, and a Legion is big enough to take control of an entire space station, complete with ten-foot-tall mechs, turrets, and jet fighters.
** All eight corporations are implied to have their own private army. Aside from Hyperion, Atlas, and Dahl, we only get to see Torgue's biker army in a DLC.
** The Vault Hunters themselves could be considered a heroic example-they don't work for any of the corporations but for themselves and their friends, and will do anything for money, from delivering messages to ''crashing a wake.'' Wilhelm in particularly was explicitly stated to be the best merc in the galaxy before he botched a job that tarnished his reputation. The Vault Hunters have also worked for actual corporations, such as Hyperion in the ''Pre-Sequel'' and Atlas in ''3.''
* ''VideoGame/{{Brigador}}'': The titular Brigadors are this mixed with [[VillainProtagonist Villain Protagonist]] and [[PunchClockVillain Punch Clock Villain]]
* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'':
** ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyAdvancedWarfare'': The backstory states that after a massive terrorist uprising, the world's use of PMC forces rose sharply as the government-fielded militaries had proven ineffective. The largest of these is the Atlas Corporation, who by the time of the game is the single largest standing army ''in the world'', governmental or otherwise.
** ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII'': Menendez's troops are explicitly PMC's. Unlike Shadow Company and many other examples, they are not Americans, but former Cuban special forces operators who went mercenary. Which makes sense in context, really, given both Menendez's hatred of America and his own Latin American heritage. However, although they are clearly Cuban mercs being led by Menendez in the campaign, in the multiplayer they are led by a presumably American CO with a gruff voice, and the soldier chatter is all done with a distinctly Australian accent. That in and of itself may have something to do with [=DeFalco=], Menendez's [[TheDragon Dragon]] who has a British accent.
** ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'': General Shepherd's Shadow Company in ''Modern Warfare 2'' has most of the trappings of [=PMCs=], though the SOCOM emblems they wear make their true nature somewhat difficult to discern. ''Modern Warfare 3'' likewise has the Russian Loyalist faction assisting you for half of the game treated as one of these; in multiplayer, they're just called "PMC", where they're matched up against African Militiamen.
* ''VideoGame/CallOfJuarezTheCartel'': Peacekeepers International, an Expy of Blackwater. Their CEO, Michael Duke is a CorruptCorporateExecutive who started selling high-end firearms to the Mendoza cartel after PI went bankrupt following an incident where they bombed a children's hospital in Iraq.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} III'', the Carthaginians and Dutch have Numidian and Swiss mercenaries as their respective special units.
* In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert'', Tanya is this to the Allies, as shown in the opening cutscene for her first mission, when one of the officers gets angry at having a civilian present in their war room. Tanya quickly lets him know that even if she's a civilian, she's trusted enough to have top-level clearance. This seems to be no longer the case in the two sequels, however, where Tanya seems to work directly for the Allied military.
* In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3: Uprising'' it turns out the war-weary Allies are now relying heavily on the PMC[=/=]weapons developer Futuretech, who were able to hire large numbers of veteran disenfranchised soldiers following the end of the war, to provide a great deal of their security.
* ''VideoGame/ContractWars'' and it's more realistic tactical shooter sister game, ''VideoGame/EscapeFromTarkov'' features two [=PMCs=] duking it out within the fictional [[{{Ruritania}} Novorinsk]] special economic region; '''BEAR''' (Battle Encounter Assault Regiment), a Russian-based PMC covertly working under the arm of the Russian government and '''USEC''' ('''U'''nited '''Sec'''urity), a western-based PMC working for [=TerraGroup=].
* ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings'' has a lot of mercenary companies, many of them based on historical examples as seen under Real Life, that can be hired, very expensively, if you need extra troops or galleys. Under certain circumstances, they can be landed, and a few can be vassalized. But, once you run out of gold they'll send a message regretfully informing you that they have to cancel their contract.
* ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'': In the second game, C.E.L.L. is portrayed as both incompetent and unprofessional compared to [[SemperFi the Marine forces]]. They fail to effectively fight the AlienInvasion (granted, they were originally hired to quell riots and fend off the occasional alien raiding force while the marines fought the real invasion), attempt to kill the protagonist simply because of a grudge their [[GeneralRipper commander]] has on [[MistakenIdentity the guy he thinks he is]], and blatantly refuse to follow orders to stand down from their [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure corporate CEO]], just to get their vengeance on the protagonist. That said, [[CurbStompCushion we still see them gain some small victories]] against the much more advanced aliens when forced to fight, and they're very dangerous on a ''tactical'' level against even the superpowered protagonist. At the start of the third act, the Marines disarm and arrest most of them. In the third game, they control the world's energy supply with technology looted from the aliens.
* ''VideoGame/CyberNations'' uses this as the source of soldiers; they don't come from your population, which tends to be convenient at times.
* ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'': [=PMCs=] are ubiquitous in the year 2027 and play a significant role in the plot. The one that plays the largest role in the game is Belltower Associates, a British PMC that has taken over as the police of Hengsha, a Chinese two-tiered city, and serves as security for Tai Yong Medical, who pretty much own the city as well. [[spoiler:Both the leadership of Belltower and TYM are members of the Illuminati, too, and the Spec Ops troops are part of a covert Belltower unit.]] Amusingly, Belltower is also contracted out to the Australian government to fight in their civil war against separatists who are backed by China, which causes a lot of tension between Belltower's executives and the Chinese government.
** Incidentally, while Belltower comes across as an {{Expy}} of Blackwater, [[AllThereInTheManual background material]] indicates that the company was founded as a result of Blackwater's breakup.
** The comparison between Belltower and Blackwater becomes even stronger in [[VideoGame/DeusExMankindDivided the sequel]], when, hit by the one-two punch of both the Aug Incident and Jensen helping expose their illegal detention camp in the DLC, Belltower is forced to downsize and rename themselves "Tarvos Security Services" to escape it's bad press, much like how Blackwater re-branded itself as XE Services and, later, Academi.
* ''VideoGame/DirtyBomb'': All of the playable characters are mercenaries being hired either by the criminal syndicate Jackal, or the Central Disaster Authority. None of them have any allegiance, except to the side that offers them most.
* ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'': Krenel's mercenaries are a squad hired by the Wild Pines group to protect their representative Joyce Messier while the negotiations with the Dockworker's Union are underway and to prove (military) support should the situation goes out of control.[[spoiler:It's later revealed that The Hanged Man, the victim whose murder you are investigating, was their leading officer. With his death, the squad went rogue and now are laying low planning their revenge.]] Most of the Krenel men we encounter are horribly racist [[SociopathicSoldier sociopathic soldiers]] fond of reminiscing of the war atrocities they committed in third world countries [[ForTheEvulz for cheap laughs]].
* ''VideoGame/TheDivision'':
** The Last Man Battalion ''was'' a Private Military Company operating in [[BigApplesauce New York City]] to keep order following the outbreak of [[TheVirus Green Poison]], but went rogue when their extreme methods of peacekeeping caused rifts between them and government forces, resulting in LMB turning a considerable chunk of east Midtown Manhattan into their own little fiefdom.
** The same goes for the Black Tusk in [[VideoGame/TheDivision2 its sequel]], except they occupy ''the entirety of Washington D.C'' once all three main game factions have been subdued. Both the LMB and Black Tusk serve as the primary endgame enemies in their respective games.
* ''Franchise/DragonAge'':
** ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'': Your player character can become one early in; the other choice is to join a smuggling gang. In both cases, the shady organization is keeping the [[PlayerCharacter Hawke]] siblings as indentured servants for a year in payment for [[TheIllegal sneaking you into Kirkwall after you've fled your homeland]].
** ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' has (potentially) two groups of mercenaries run by main characters: Bull's Chargers, run by the [[OvertOperative Iron Bull]], and the Valo-Kas Mercenary Company, run by a Vashoth [[PlayerCharacter Inquisitor]]. Both groups are examples of 'good' mercenaries; they screen their clients, scrupulously operate within the law, and adhere to codes of conduct regarding fair treatment of prisoners and fellow mercenaries. The Chargers have taken jobs from nobles to wipe out rival nobles, but hey, [[DecadentCourt that's nobility for you]]. A Vashoth Inquisitor and Iron Bull can occasionally talk shop about the mercenary life.
* In ''VideoGame/DustFiveOneFour'', an FPS tie-in to ''VideoGame/EVEOnline'', the player characters are immortal clone soldiers turned mercenary. EVE players were able to hire them to defend or seize planetary assets while the game was active.
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
** The Fighters Guild, an organization of "[[HiredGuns warriors-for-hire]]" who operate throughout most of Tamriel. The Guild is chartered by Empire of Tamriel to provide [[AdventureGuild training and employment]] to citizens of the martial persuasion. The Guild got its start during the reign of the [[{{Wutai}} Akaviri]] [[RegentForLife Potentate]] Versidue-Shaie, who dissolved and outlawed the private armies of nobles throughout the Empire. Given that the citizens of Tamriel still had a need for protective services beyond what the Imperial Legions could provide and that there was a need to prevent thousands of unemployed soldiers from straying into brigandry, Versidue-Shaie ordered the formation of the Syffim (the [[SnakePeople Tsaesci]] word for "soldier"), the group that would eventually become the Fighters Guild. Fighters Guild Halls can accept contracts from any citizen of the empire, as long as it does not violate any laws or customs. These most often involve [[RatStomp dealing with dangerous wild animals]], [[BountyHunter collecting bounties on criminals]], protection and bodyguard services, and, at the highest levels, dealing with supernatural threats including vampires, necromancers, and Daedra worshipers.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' takes a rather unsubtle swipe at this trope with the Black''woods'' Company, an EvilCounterpart to the Fighters Guild. They are a group of mercenaries who are undercutting the Fighters Guild by taking their contracts for cheaper and then cheating on them for profit. They are also much more ruthless in fulfilling their contracts, not above [[spoiler:using hallucinogens to make the Guild massacre an innocent village]].
** The Companions in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' are a regional variant that operates only within Skyrim. (Due to their presence, the Fighters Guild [[SupermanStaysOutOfGotham stays out of Skyrim]].) The Companions trace their organization back to the original [[BadassArmy 500 Companions]] of [[FounderOfTheKingdom Ysgramor]], who slaughtered Skyrim's native [[OurElvesAreDifferent Falmer (Snow Elves)]] and claimed Skyrim for the [[BarbarianHero Atmorans]] (ancestors of the [[HornyVikings Nords]]). They fulfill many of the duties that the Fighters Guild performs in other territories.
* ''VideoGame/{{Extrapower}}'':
** ''VideoGame/ExtrapowerAttackOfDarkforce'': The SPICA mercenary company is a PMC tasked with studying and eradicating [[TheAssimilator the Bem]] at the start of the game. Werner's command capabilities and resourceful contacts in high places make them an essential support in fighting off the AlienInvasion.
** ''VideoGame/ExtrapowerGiantFist'': Has the Barracuda mercenary organization, led by Mr Barrack. Less scrupulous than SPICA, they consist of [[{{Mooks}} armed goons]] and are simple muscle for whoever pays them enough. Fighter Wolf is a more individual example, supported by his girlfriend and [[{{Literature/Momotaro}} his monkey, dog, and bird helpers]] but otherwise operating solo. At the end of his route, he negotiates a comfortable gig as the bodyguard of Mars Corp's CEO.
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':
** ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' has the Talon Company Mercs, who pop up occasionally in the Capital Wasteland, usually fighting other factions such as super mutants or scavenging in pre-war tech buildings. If you play a good karma-aligned character and finish the "Power of the Atom" quest in favor of Megaton, Mr. Burke will send them after you as well.
** ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' features the Gunners, a group of semi-professional mercenaries with good equipment, disciplined ranks, and exactly zero morals; stand in their way, and you ''will'' go down. If you have enough money to pay their price, they'll do anything, from raiding old pharmaceutical companies for experimental drugs to stealing eggs from a Deathclaw nest. One potential companion, [=MacCready=], is a former Gunner who joined for the money but grew so disgusted with their kill-happy ways he leaves them to strike out on his own. They are not happy with his choice.
* ''Videogame/{{Evolve}}'' has numerous groups employed by the gigacorps such as Hightower and Orion Secure Solutions. The group seen in-game is Ebonstar Tactical Solutions, the hired guns of Nordita. Several of the maps (Armory, Barracks, King's Fort, Wraith Trap) are Ebonstar facilities and you can make use of some of their equipment in the Evacuation campaign.
* ''Franchise/FarCry'':
** In ''VideoGame/FarCry2'', the main enemies of the game are members of two [=PMCs=], augmenting the local forces of each faction. The APR hired American PMC [=MacGrudder=]-Powell, while the UFLL hired Bastion UK.
** ''VideoGame/FarCry3'': [[BigBad Hoyt Volker's]] [[http://farcry.wikia.com/wiki/Privateers Privateers]]. As his personal merc army, they maintain a "military occupation" style stranglehold on Rook Island's southern island for him, while safeguarding his human trafficking/drug manufacturing organization. They certainly [[http://farcry.wikia.com/wiki/Privateers#Gallery look the part]], and their equipment and tactics are a cut above that of both your native allies and the pirates you've been fighting for most of the game.
** ''VideoGame/FarCry4'''s Royal Guard, the EliteMooks in charge of northern Kyrat, are implicitly stated to be foreign mercenaries, mostly of Chinese origin.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasy'':
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'': Most of the playable characters, including the hero Squall Leonhart, are part of the PMC organization called [=SeeD=]. [[spoiler:It was originally founded for more noble purposes, but turned to hiring out its soldiers in order to bring in enough capital to keep operating, and soon lost track of its intended purpose.]]
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', Cloud is ostensibly a mercenary for the first hour or so. [[spoiler:We find out later in the story that this is meant to be taken almost literally.]]
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'''s SOLDIER is itself technically a PMC, as it is run by the Shinra Electric Power Company, a megacorp that has largely assumed government of Midgar.
* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' has a number of mercenaries:
** Notable are the Greil Mercenaries in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'', of which main character Ike is a member. They fall under the "mercenary company" heading, working for the side they think is right even when working for the other side would mean greater profits.
** In a few games, entire countries hire out their military forces, because their land is unsuitable for farming and mercenary work keeps the country afloat. Starting with Thracia's DragonRider army, they're usually flying units, and even their royalty are mercenaries.
** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' you and your fater Jeralt start the game as mercenaries, Jeralt himself being a household name among mercenaries and you hearing about his exploits constantly before he left the gang to raise you. Leonie, a student of the Golden Deers, idolizes him and intends on following his footsteps. Most of Leonie's endings involve starting her own group of mercenaries, and depending on who which house you align with and whom your spouse is you can also carry your father's torch, either indendantly or after forming your own group.
* ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'': The Armacham Technology Corporation intends to market its [[SuperSoldier Replica soldiers]] as a PMC. Armacham also keeps a small army of heavily-armed mercenaries as part of both their Security division and their Black Operations division; the former protects Armacham assets while the latter eliminates threats and cleans up evidence of their [[CorruptCorporateExecutive extensive misdeeds.]] Senator David Hoyle gets his own in ''F.E.A.R.: Perseus Mandate'' to help him do a little ATC shoplifting. They call themselves the Nightcrawlers. Apparently, they're a free-standing army.
* ''VideoGame/GirlsFrontline'' has several with the player working for Griffin & Kryuger Security Firm. Founded by a war veteran, Griffin makes a point in using [[RobotSoldier Tactical Dolls]] converted from [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots civilian Dolls]] to keep human casualties down. The primary antagonist faction, Sangvis Ferri, also used to be a major player in the PMC market [[AIIsACrapshoot before their AI took control of their forces and production lines, killed all human personnel, then declared war against humanity]], forcing the government to hire Griffin to clean up their mess.
* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'': Merryweather. It's essentially a Blackwater {{expy}}, and Trevor mentions that it's been cleared some time before the event of the game to operate on American soil [[spoiler:and as it turns out, for the purpose of providing guard duty for a nuke.]] In a subversion, they're not immediately hostile to the protagonists, nor are they specifically hired against them until the final mission with option C "Deathwish". Trevor simply demolishes their operations on three separate and increasingly spectacular occasions, and afterward they switch to ItsPersonal, crashing an already-complicated MexicanStandoff / BlastOut involving Michael (and Trevor promptly joins after it begins), then go after the protagonists in the final heist, even if apparently nobody paid them for that.
* ''VideoGame/{{HAWX}}'': You play as a former Air Force pilot working for a PMC fighting an alliance of anti-American South American states known as Las Trinidad who defects back to the Air Force once the PMC betrays the U.S. because Las Trinidad made them a better offer. To be fair, the immediate flip-flopping of the PMC for the better offer ''is'' mentioned as being against the Reykjavik Accords that legitimized [=PMCs=] in the first place, and at the end of the game, [[spoiler:in addition to repealing the Accords, the US carries out a private and probably illegal operation to assassinate the CEO of the PMC after an international manhunt fails to find him.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Haze}}'': Mantel is described as a Private Military Company, though in the game itself it's acting on its own and hasn't been hired. It's a particularly ludicrous example of this trope since it's stated to have all but ''replaced'' all national armed forces. And Mantel is not just a PMC, but a super-corporation that has, apparently, taken over most of North America.
* ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'': Most of the Oseram you meet in the game are Freebooters, mercenaries who fight for pay. Erend admits that makes them sound a lot less loyal than they really are. The only Freebooters you meet are those serving directly under the Sun-King Avad. He hired them to help overthrow his mad father, and they've been serving him proudly ever since.
* ''VideoGame/IkariWarriors'': The titular warriors are this, though they're also portrayed in a more sympathetic light compared to the other examples on this page, particularly with their boss Heidern who lost his family and [[EyeScream eye]] to crime lord and SNKBoss extraordinaire, [[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters Rugal]].
* ''{{VideoGame/inFAMOUS 2}}'' features Vermaak 88, a [[AmoralAfrikaner South African PMC]]; by the time the game starts, news reports mention they're the largest and most lucrative private army in the world. [[BigBad Joseph]] Bertrand hires out an entire unit of Vermaak 88 mercenaries to come work in New Marais, but this is actually a front to use these men as guinea pigs for a lab experiment — he uses a [[PowerCopying power transfer machine]] on Lucy Kuo (a kidnapped [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual Conduit]]) to grant Kuo's [[AnIcePerson ice powers]] to the Vermaak soldiers. Bertrand then intends to sell the [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity now completely insane]] and {{superpowered|Mooks}} [[{{supersoldier}} mercenaries]] as weapons of war to various dictators and warlords around the world, ultimately hoping to inspire [[FantasticRacism fear and hatred of Conduits]] on a global scale.
* ''VideoGame/ImperiumNova'': Houses that operate in the Military sphere can hire out their military units as mercenaries, and they can specify which House can hire them if they don't want them used against them, or want to use a weaker House as a proxy. They don't take time to train and use the tech level of their founding House, but they cost anywhere from 10 to 250% more than training the units yourself.
* ''VideoGame/JaggedAlliance'' has you hiring mercenaries from the Association of International Mercenaries (A.I.M.) to complete your missions. A.I.M. seems to work as more of a mercenary union/guild rather than a PMC, as members are hired on an individual basis and bring just themselves plus their starting equipment if you chose to pay for it, leaving you to provide any other equipment, further training, and transportation within the area of operations.
** ''Jagged Alliance 2'' would introduce the More Economic Recruiting Center (M.E.R.C.) as an alternate provider with its own membership. The locals who can be recruited for dirt-cheap salaries (with stats to match) and the rebels (who are seconded to your force without pay) are ''not'' mercenaries, however.
** That A.I.M has very strict standards, they won't even think about hiring or lending mercs to people with criminal backgrounds or ChildSoldiers. The events of the first two games in the series seemed to have lent them a strong degree of international legitimacy as well, so they don't seem to be willing to hire their mercenaries out to morally unscrupulous individuals. When [[spoiler: the legendary ex-A.I.M. merc Mike]] shows up partway through ''Jagged Alliance 2'', the other A.I.M. mercs respond to him by calling him a "traitor" for working with someone as out-and-out evil as Deidrianna.
** In-game, many of the antagonists you end up fighting are also mercenaries. Lucas' red shirt-wearing goons in the first game are all mercenaries he's hired to wrest control of the fallow trees, and Deidrianna's troops in the third are an even mixture of fanatically loyal soldiers, conscripts, and mercenaries. As the game progresses, Deidrianna begins to rely more and more on professional mercenaries to make up for the fact that many of her people are rebelling and her poorly-trained and poorly-armed conscripts have been regularly slaughtered by your own mercs.
* ''VideoGame/JurassicParkTheGame'': The [=InGen=] Mercenaries, in contrast to the movies, are mostly decent if cold folks who are JustFollowingOrders: they genuinely want to help, and even seem to feel guilty for their role in driving the Isla Sorna natives off the island. [[spoiler:Billy's decision to betray [=InGen=] is fueled mostly by knowing they [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal don't give a damn about their hired guns]] and certainly won't care about their deaths, and his outright FaceHeelTurn to villainy is largely the result of [[HeroicSacrifice Oscar's death]] and [[DrivenToVillainy snapping under the pressure]] of Dr. Laura Sorkin's [[AnimalWrongsGroup increasingly stupid and short-sighted actions]] that led to the gruesome deaths of the other mercenaries, ''particularly'' his buddy D-Caf]].
* ''VideoGame/KingdomsOfAmalurReckoning'': The Warsworn are a faction of honorable mercenaries that make up a good chunk of the forces fighting against the Tuatha. The Warsworn were originally formed to hunt down the [[EldritchAbomination Niskaru]], but they were forced to become hired swords to make ends meet.
* ''VideoGame/{{MAG}}'' focuses on an all-out war between three mega-[=PMCs=] (each of which have replaced government armies — they've been downgraded to little more than a glorified National Guard). In a decidedly odd subversion of the "not allowed to make war" deal, the [=PMCs=] are specifically fighting each other to prove that their group is more capable of defending the objective...from other [=PMCs=] (technically, the concern is terrorists, but the [=PMCs=] are the most frequent attackers). In other words, the [=PMCs=] are fighting and causing damage to the very things they're being hired to protect so that they can be hired to protect it.
* ''Franchise/MassEffect'' depicts various mercenary groups, such as the Blue Suns, Eclipse, and Blood Pack. These groups make up a significant portion of the second game's enemies, as it takes place in a region of space outside of Citadel jurisdiction.
** Wrex in the first game was a mercenary and bounty hunter for [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld centuries]] before he teamed up with Shepard.
** Zaeed Massani is a mercenary, [[spoiler: the co-founder of the Blue Suns]], and one of the toughest characters in your party.
** Each of the three main companies has their own distinct style. Eclipse, for example, makes heavy use of asari Vanguards, salarian Engineers, and mechs. The Blue Suns use elite squads of heavily-armed human, turian, and batarian soldiers. The Blood Pack use regenerating vorcha and krogan troops, and a hefty amount of [[KillItWithFire flamethrowers]].
** It's worth noting that in addition to standard [=PMC=] jobs, the majority of the mercenary organizations in the setting also run large-scale criminal enterprises as well. As a result, a lot of the mercenary groups are also effectively heavily-armed, militarized versions of TheMafia. In one neighborhood this is made explicit when a recording notes the Blue Suns regularly collected protection money. One notable subversion is the Talon mercenary unit from ''Mass Effect 3: Omega''. Originally they were a small-time outfit on the eponymous station that was just as terrible as all the rest (but not as numerous). Then [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs Cerberus invaded]] and [[TheCape Nyreen Kandros]] seized on them as the core of LaResistance. By the time Shepard and Aria show up, the Talons are [[WeHelpTheHelpless more selfless]] and [[BadassArmy disciplined]] than some of the setting's actual standing armies.
** ''VideoGame/MassEffect3: Citadel'' also has the [=CAT6=] mercenaries, named after the Alliance's "Category 6" discharges (dishonorable discharges due to either substance abuse or mental stress). They're frighteningly well-equipped with customized Cerberus equipment, and are even stronger than the already-formidable soldiers they ape (because there are ''millions'' of Cerberus mooks, [[ConservationOfNinjutsu and only a few hundred of them]]).
** Various minor groups are present in the background. One group consisting of a couple dozen armed thugs, the Grim Skulls, are wiped out by Saren Arterius in the ''Mass Effect: Revelations'' prequel novel. Another, the Grim Angels, was one of the ''many'' groups that [[SoleSurvivor Zaeed Massani]] ran with... they all died. Small groups like this act as the antagonists of several side missions in VideoGame/MassEffect1 and VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda, usually being so irrelevant that they don't even get names.
** Technically all of the multiplayer characters in ''Mass Effect 3'' are paid by the job. In some cases, they're serving members of an allied government (humans, turians, asari, salarians, geth, quarians) and paying them just simplifies the supply lines a little. In others, such as the batarians, vorcha, and volus, they're more motivated by money than anything else.
* ''Videogame/MechWarrior'': A recurring theme. Both ''Mechwarrior 2'' and ''4'' have an ExpansionPack that casts the PlayerCharacter as the commanding officer of a small mercenary organization. The expansion packs add a [[SlidingScaleOfLinearityVsOpenness layer of openness to the traditionally linear games]], allowing the player to take sides in conflicts (such as the Steiner vs. Davion civil war in ''Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries'') and betray (or be betrayed by) their clients. Both the spinoff games, ''Videogame/MechCommander'' and ''Videogame/MechAssault'' cast the player as a mercenary.
** ''Mechwarrior 4'' additionally gives the player the choice of being sponsored by one of four canonical mercenary units, with each granting the player a different set of starting mechs and a different perk.
** ''Mechwarrior 5'' continues the trend, casting the player character as commander of a shattered mercenary company, attempting to rebuild its strength while hunting for the unknown enemies who decimated the unit and murdered the player's father.
* ''VideoGame/{{Mercenaries}}'': The PlayerCharacter in ''Playground of Destruction'' and ''Mercenaries 2: World in Flames''.
** In the first game, the player is a member of the PMC Executive Operations ([=ExOps=], see Real Life Examples for why this name was chosen). In the sequel, the player presumably still works for [=ExOps=], though after the tutorial level and the [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder refusal of the Corrupt Corporate Executive to sign the damn check]], he goes into business for himself to bring him down, while Fiona and the rest of the support staff tag along for opportunities for fun, profit, and lulz.
** Also, there's the massive oil super-conglomerate known as Universal Petroleum, which contracts out a "low-rent" PMC known as Tactical Solutions to do security work. Of course, in this case, "security work" includes deploying a battalion of tanks, a virtual air wing of helicopters, and over a thousand-foot infantry, complete with military-grade air support. The scary part is that some real-life [=PMCs=] (i.e. Blackwater and Executive Outcomes) ''could'' match what UP's mercenaries do in-game.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'': Mercenary organizations play a big role in some of the games:
** The [=PMCs=] are used as a callback to the original ''VideoGame/MetalGear1'', where Big Boss builds Outer Heaven as a refuge where disillusioned and disavowed soldiers can go, effectively becoming mercenaries or a sort-of proto-PMC. His goal of creating a world where soldiers are always needed is essentially fulfilled by the War Economy ([[spoiler:which is probably one of the reasons why he renounces his original beliefs at the end, it's clearly not a good thing]]), and the parent company that owns the five major [=PMCs=] is ''actually named'' "Outer Heaven".
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'': The first two outfits encountered have their members portrayed as mercenaries in that they're performing offensive operations, while those of the third are identically dressed and equipped like the first (since the second was in South America) but are performing security... and [[spoiler:executing curfew violators in an effort to root out "resistance members".]] All three are operating for the governments of the countries where they're found, although in the South American location the rebels have hired a local PMC of their own, and the militia have local [=PMCs=] assisting in the Middle East. Of note is Werewolf, which seems to field only unmanned units for recon and security.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'': The origins of Outer Heaven are explored, starting out as the Militaires Sans Frontieres. Unlike most examples, however, the Militaires Sans Frontieres were portrayed in a positive light. Another Private Military Contractor in the game is the Peace Sentinels, but they are portrayed as genuine bad guys. It's strongly implied that the Peace Sentinels are rogue CIA operators.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'': In addition to Venom Snake's Diamond Dogs, a revival of Militaires Sans Frontieres, there are three other [=PMCs=] (called "Private Forces" or [=PFs=] in the game) operating in Angola, mostly made up of [[AmoralAfrikaner ex-SADF]] or [[FormerRegimePersonnel former Rhodesian SAS]]. They are often seen working with UNITA rebels and the largest of them is a front for [[TheConspiracy Cipher]], with the other two implied to be as well.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'': A similar theme seems to exist. Raiden is a member of Maverick Security Consulting, Inc., which similar to the Militaires Sans Frontieres, are overall portrayed in a more positive light[[note]]it's also mentioned that, thanks in part to the legacy of the War Economy, Maverick prefers to call themselves "private security providers"[[/note]]. Likewise, Desperado Enforcement LLC, similar to the Peace Sentinels, are portrayed as genuine bad guys. [[spoiler:Raiden later [[HeroicBSOD learns]] that many of the Desperado mooks are {{Punch Clock Villain}}s; it's only their heads, the Winds of Destruction, who are outright villainous.]]
* ''VideoGame/PandoraFirstContact'': The Imperium — formerly Empire Management — is a PMC that has risen to MegaCorp levels thanks to its partnership with the [[MegaCorp Noxium Corporation]], known as the Ceres Cartel. After Noxium develops interstellar colony ships, Admiral Heid, the leader of Imperium, dissolves the partnership and absconds with the first ship, intent on getting to the newly-discovered habitable world in order to keep Imperium involved in all of humanity's conflicts, wherever they may be. They are the {{Expy}} of ''SMAC''[='s=] Spartan Federation: strong military with poor economy and science.
* ''VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist'': The Murkywater mercenaries, inspired by the real-life counterpart Blackwater, show up as enemies in one level. They're no more resilient than a SWAT unit, but they have better reaction time and accuracy. They become more prominent in ''VideoGame/PAYDAY2'', featuring as enemies in more heists, including "Shadow Raid" where they're shown (or at least mentioned by Bain) to have a hand in a lot of dirty business — up to and including funding terrorists with drug money, and "Meltdown", where they have access to, of all things, [[spoiler:nuclear warheads]].
* ''VideoGame/PerfectDark'' has an excessively large security division of the dataDyne hyper-corporation, which is contracted to an alien race (albeit somewhat unwillingly), as well as the protagonist's workplace, Carrington Institute. The sequel and extended universe add the contractable security sectors of another two hypercorps; Zentek and Core-Mantis Omniglobal.
* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarUniverse'': The GUARDIANS Security Corporation is a combination of this and LawEnforcementInc., but with ALighterShadeOfGrey.
* ''Videogame/PlanetSide 2'': The New Conglomerate is a collection of {{Mega Corp}}s, libertarians, mercenaries, and pirates. The [[TheEmpire Terran Republic]] at one point had mercenaries until they were all executed for treason.
* The main protagonists of ''VideoGame/ProjectWingman'' are a mercenary company called Sicario. They’re noted to have their own Special Ops forces, armored divisions, transport craft, and even their own AWACS. The last of which is something that not even some countries are able to operate. The game begins with Sicario finishing their contract in one country before flying to Cascadia to assist in their war for independence from the Federation.
* ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando'' featured the "Thugs-4-Less" organization. One of their slogans pretty much says it all: "You bring the cash, we'll bring the thrash."
* In ''VideoGame/RedFaction'', once the player character and his comrades have killed most of the Ultor security guards, Ultor brings in "mercenaries" for backup. It's mostly an excuse for the Mooks to get tougher, and to start dropping cooler guns when you kill them.
* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'': Among other things, the Umbrella Corporation's "Security" seems to have the military strength of a small country. Specifically, the UBCS (Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service) is explicitly staffed with mercenaries.
* ''[[VideoGame/RomancingSaga2 Romancing [=SaGa=] 2]]'': Mercenaries are among the game's many character classes. ''[[VideoGame/RomacingSaGaReUniverse [=Re;Universe=]]]'' describes them as more loyal to crown than coin, as such they're likely to leave if a new emperor ascends to the throne.
* ''VideoGame/SamuraiWarriors'': Magoichi Saika's group (their Japanese name ''Saika-shu'' literally means "Saika group"). They're most prominently shown in the second game, where in Magoichi's story [[spoiler:the "Saika Mercenaries" first fight alongside UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga at Anegawa at the behest of Magoichi's friend, then against Nobunaga at the next battle. Once he's on the other end of their guns, Nobunaga does ''not'' take this well]].
* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'': Jack's Squad falls neatly in the corporate mercenary mold. They are a platoon of guns-for-hire sent by an unknown third party to investigate the [[DarkWorld Schwarzwelt]] with an "eye for development" (read: "profit and wealth"). Worth noting that their cross-dimensional mobile base, [[SuperPrototype the ''Lightning'']], is far more powerful than the other ships of the U.N. Schwarzwelt Investigational Team, being able to create a PocketDimension where the squad's HQ is located. The game explicitly compares it to a fully customized and tuned-out vehicle whereas the other ships are cars straight from the assembly line. Pretty much all the members except for [[AffablyEvil Captain Jack]] are incredibly rude and greedy trigger-happy psychos who readily admit to your face that they are looking for excuses to fill you with lead.
* ''VideoGame/SlyCooper'':
** ''VideoGame/Sly2BandOfThieves'': A small army of primate [=PMCs=] is hired by Constable Neyla in the second Prague episode. Said [=PMCs=] return for ''[[VideoGame/Sly3HonorAmongThieves Honor Among Thieves]]'', this time working for Carmelita Fox.
** ''VideoGame/SlyCooperThievesInTime'': One of the villains, El Jefe, is the leader of a private army that specializes in taking over countries for the highest bidder.
%%* ''VideoGame/SoldierOfFortune'': The Shop.
* ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'' features the private security company Sable International, which seem to be a mixture of this trope and LawEnforcementInc. Led by the mercenary commander ComicBook/SilverSable, they are hired by [[CorruptPolitician Mayor]] ComicBook/NormanOsborn to work as a quasi-police force in New York City, patrolling the streets alongside the NYPD in the aftermath of a massacre committed by the [[FarEastAsianTerrorists Inner Demons]]. However, Sable soon starts behaving like an occupying paramilitary force imposing Mayor Osborn's increasingly authoritarian policies on NYC, such as by [[PoliceBrutality violently harassing]] civilians at checkpoints and cracking down on peaceful protests. Despite being well-equipped with a variety of high-tech gear and weaponry, Sable personnel [[IncompetenceInc constantly fail]] to stop the Demons and other various criminal groups from causing mayhem around the city.
* ''VideoGame/SplinterCell'' had a few: Armed Guardian Services (ARGUS), Shetland's Displace International, and ''Conviction'' added the Black Arrow company. There's also a more heroic example in Paladin Nine Security, the PMC run by Sam's friend Victor Coste, who assists Sam throughout ''Conviction.''
* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'':
** In the campaign in ''Wings of Liberty'' you can hire mercenaries in the ''Hyperion'' from Graven Hill, who hangs out in the tavern drinking mai tais. Mercenary units are much tougher than their regular counterparts, can be purchased from the Merc Compound, and are created instantly, but have a limited pool per mission. Examples include everything from Hammer Securities, who are corporate professionals that provide their specially modified Marauder armor and troops to use them, to the Hel's Angels, pirate fighter pilots who do some mercenary work on the side, to the ''Jackson's Revenge'', an old battlecruiser that some say is cursed. Some of these mercenaries used to be former Dominion and Confederate forces eking a living.
** Raynor's Raiders, the player's forces, also do some mercenary work to fund their revolution against Mengsk. Mostly retrieving Xel'naga artifacts for the Moebius Foundation.
** There's also a mission where you have to collect enough minerals to hire a merc before the enemy does.
* In ''Videogame/StarCrawlers'', you play as a small team of individual mercenary contractors, colloquially known as "crawlers," and carry out missions for various {{Mega Corp}}s. Many of the enemies you fight are also mercenary contractors working as security, soldiers, and assassins for the corporations. Several of the corporations you can work for or fight against, such as [=FoxKin=], Dablue Yutakai, and Emer LT, specialize in private mercenary work and security.
* ''VideoGame/StarFox'': The eponymous team is made up of mercenaries fighting for the Cornerian military. After the credits of ''VideoGame/StarFox64'', the team is paid a check for how many enemies they've fragged multiplied by 64. The games also feature rival mercenary team ''Star Wolf'', who is much less scrupulous in its dealings. Fox even turns down an offer to get his team officially inducted into the Cornerian military since they like doing things their own way.
* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'': Two different [[DownloadableContent DLCs]] have their own versions:
** ''Apocalypse'': The [[SpaceCossacks Marauders]] normally raid settled empires at random, but they can be paid to raid a specific empire, and after the Midgame point they'll hire out their fleets and leaders to player empires, allowing them to use them as their own for a limited time. [[spoiler: Until the [[GalacticConqueror Great Khan]] appears, and any Marauder mercenaries abandon their contracts to join his campaign.]]
** ''Overlord'': Player empires can convert their fleets into mercenary enclaves based out of a space station in their territory that can hire out ships and ground forces to other empires, paying dividends to their patron in exchange for investing in upgrading their fleets.
** ''MegaCorp'': Militarist corporate empires can take the "Naval Contractors" or "Private Military Contractors" civics, but unless the player also has ''Overlord'' they're mostly for flavor, if both [=DLCs=] are installed the civics allow the empire to create more mercenary enclaves than others.
* In ''Videogame/StrikeCommander'', [=PMCs=] have become quite powerful, and operate their own armoured and airborne vehicles. They work for different nations to augment armies and carry out precision strikes. The player belongs to one such unit that specializes in F-16 fighter jets. The game takes you all around the world as your squad assists in other countries' wars. Stocking inventory for your squad means buying Sidewinder missiles and laser-guided bombs, among other things.
* In ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' the world is secretly controlled by two holding companies. Each company has a branch dedicated to this trope, and both of them employ [[ArmyOfThievesAndWhores the nine playable classes]] to try to destroy the other company.
* ''VideoGame/{{Titanfall}}'':
** The "IMC" faction consists of the field operatives of Hammond Robotics, a MegaCorp out to squash the resistance on the "Frontier worlds" that they have a vested interest in. Their enemies are the [[LaResistance Militias of the Frontier]].
** ''VideoGame/Titanfall2'' adds two more [=PMCs=].
*** The 6-4 who are badass consummate professionals and have a reputation for taking contracts for less money by working for the underdog in a conflict, in this case, they are employed by The Militia.
*** The Apex Predators who are equally badass and substantially less nice, they work for the IMC and make up all of the bosses the protagonist fights throughout the single-player campaign.
* ''VideoGame/TotalWar'': Mercenaries can often be purchased to boost your armies. The upside is that mercenary units are typically much better than the levies you'll be using in the early game, join your forces instantly, and can include specialized units based on where you're recruiting from. The tradeoff is their high upkeep, limited availability, and of course the fact that your opponents can hire them too.
* ''Videogame/TrailsSeries'' has Jaeger Corps, who are effectively [=PMCs=] that vary between the classic mercenary companies or corporate mercenary folds and are typically dealt with as antagonists. They traditionally have an intense rivalry with the [[AdventureGuild Bracer Guild]] due to the conflicting nature of their line of work (Bracers are independent warriors dedicated to helping and protecting civilians). While [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky Liberl]] has banned jaegers from entering their country, the same can't be said for the other nations as both [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsFromZeroAndTrailsToAzure the Red Constellation]] and [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel Zephyr]], two of the largest jaeger corps, are running around at Crossbell and Erebonia respectively.
* ''{{VideoGame/Uncharted}}'': Throughout the series, [[TheHero Nathan Drake]] and his friends frequently fight against entire private armies that have been hired by the main villains to help them search for lost cities and hidden treasures around the world.
** In ''VideoGame/UnchartedDrakesFortune'', [[EvilBrit Gabriel Roman]] and [[TheStarscream Atoq Navarro]] hired out a company of South American mercenaries to help them in their search for El Dorado on a deserted island.
** In ''VideoGame/Uncharted2AmongThieves'', the [[SociopathicSoldier fugitive Serbian warlord]] Zoran Lazarevic commands his own paramilitary force of Eastern European mercs to help him find [[TheShangriLa Shambhala]] in the Himalayas.
** In ''VideoGame/Uncharted3DrakesDeception'', [[BigBad Katherine Marlowe]] and [[TheDragon Talbot]] recruited many soldiers-of-fortune to help them find the lost city of Ubar in Arabia. Just like the rest of Marlowe's various henchmen, these guys are [[EvilBrit Englishmen]].
** In ''VideoGame/Uncharted4AThiefsEnd'', the [[CorruptCorporateExecutive evil American millionaire]] Rafe Adler bought the services of the [[AmoralAfrikaner South African PMC]] Shoreline, which itself is led by [[DarkActionGirl Nadine Ross]], to locate the pirate colony of Libertalia in Madagascar.
** In ''Videogame/UnchartedTheLostLegacy'', which takes place some time after ''A Thief's End'', Shoreline troops return as late-game antagonists now led by Nadine's former lieutenant.
* ''VideoGame/VectorThrust'': Several "corporates" exist — examples include APEX Solutions, a relatively small company focused mainly on logistics and aerial power, and Samson Strategic Services, one of the largest [=PMCs=] in the world offering a massive range of logistical, tactical and force application power to anybody capable of affording its services. Worth noting is that while some [=PMCs=] are depicted as the stereotypical {{Blood Knight}}s itching to make a profit by any means possible, there are just as many companies concerned with their ethical and social imagery in the public eye and maintain a strict sense of justice and discipline in their employees.
* ''VideoGame/WarCraftIII'': Mercs can be hired from camps, and mercenary heroes, in the expansion, from taverns. Mercs can be quite useful in story missions as when you aren't given the means to make more of your troops but are still picking up money they can fill in gaps in your forces and in skirmishes as they can give you access to spells normally reserved for another faction.
* ''VideoGame/WildStar'': The Exile Free Companies are Granok mercenaries who were driven off their homeworld by their Elders for breaking "The Way of Stone" and using [[TheEmpire Dominion]] technology to fight off their invasion. Now they serve as the [[LaResistance Exiles]] de facto standing army but will fight for anyone (except the Dominion) if the price is right.
%%* ''VideoGame/WingCommander'': The Mercenaries Guild in ''Privateer''.
* ''VideoGame/{{X}}'': While all the [[MegaCorp major corporations]] series [[NGOSuperpower operate their own warfleets]], most fleets are purely for protecting their own supply chains. The only true PMC in the bunch is the Split Strong Arms.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/CryHavoc'': The Majan Hunters are just one of many mercenary companies, known in-universe as 'dogs of war'. These companies are seemingly used to support small national armies.
* ''Webcomic/MyLifeAtWar'': The 1st Investment Recovery Battalion is one of a few mercenary companies. They seem to be rather professional mostly used for heavy-duty corporate security.
* ''Webcomic/{{Outsider}}'': The Agumo Conference is a network of barsam pilots working as independent contractors willing to undertake a wide variety of jobs for paying clients. Many are currently employed by the loroi military as scouts, couriers, and guns for hire.
%%* ''Webcomic/Project0'': [[http://www.centralcitytower.com/2011/05/faction-introduction-lancers.html The Lancers]] fall on the corporate mercenary side.%%How?
* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'':
** Tagon's Toughs are one group in a universe full of them. Notable in that they have an InUniverse reputation as vaguely ethical semi-skilled suckers with milliseconds of genius who will gladly take almost anything if the money is good and are willing to let people get away with suckering them as long as they're paid well. In many cases this is actually their selling point; HotBlooded, LowerClassLout[=s=] who are OnlyInItForTheMoney and will hit ''any'' AcceptableTargets you ask them to, NeverHurtAnInnocent, and put up with all manner of abuse as long as they get to choose their own deployment, armament and ''pay''ment.
** "Pranger's Bangers", on the other hand, are {{Consummate Professional}}s who are considered ''much'' more skilled than the Toughs. They just lack their luck and Crazy Awesomeness. It's notable that when the Toughs ended up fighting the Bangers in an alternate timeline, the Toughs ''accidentally'' ambushed the Bangers[[note]]as in, they knew the actual target had hired guards, just not that it would be the Bangers[[/note]], killed their boss and all his elite troops[[note]]which show how effective the Toughs were, since it was only Tagon, Elf, and Schlock for an expected easy assignment[[/note]], and then went on to survive several revenge attacks. Don't underestimate the value of good luck.
** "Sanctum Adroit" are much more Lawful-aligned than the Toughs; they've built a reputation on respecting the letter of the law in all their operations — even the ''client'' has to beware if they catch them breaking the law.
** There are numerous single, independent antagonists that function more like {{Bounty Hunter}}s.
* ''Webcomic/{{SSDD}}'': The CORE was a company of [[http://www.poisonedminds.com/d/20120210.html mallcops]] before society collapsed. Now they're a vast army for hire that can conscript troops from client nations, has replaced many states' armed forces, and is one of the few things keeping the Collective of Anarchist States from conquering the rest of the world.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'' has the aptly named Project Freelancer as the focus for much of the series' backstory. Additionally, the group of Insurrectionists the program was at war with [[spoiler:was revealed to be a UNSC splinter group acting as a private security force for [[MegaCorp Charon Industries]].]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'': Spoofed in "[[Recap/TheBoondocksS3E3TheRedBall The Red Ball]]". [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Ed Wuncler I]] hires a squad of mercenaries from Blackwater — not for security purposes, but to use them to [[ItMakesSenseInContext fill up Woodcrest's local kickball team for an upcoming kickball game against a team from China]]. The Blackwater mercenaries (or "[[InsistentTerminology private kickball contractors]]", as they prefer to be called) are actually quite skilled at playing this sport. Unfortunately for Wuncler, the mercenaries quit because they're now busy with performing a special mission in Afghanistan.
* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': Ron hires these guys in "[[Recap/KimPossibleS2E28RonMillionaire Ron Millionaire]]" when he becomes filthy rich. They're not particularly effective — they fight the {{Red Shirt}}s, the guys that Kim takes by herself, and ''lose''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* A lot of modern military contractors, at least those operating in Western countries, are somewhat of a subversion of the trope in the sense that they are not really capable of doing what a real military does: they are more of glorified, heavy-duty security guards without the means to engage in "real" combat where heavy military equipment is involved. Website/TheOtherWiki has a list of some of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_private_military_contractors the most notable examples]]. This may be in part because of the United Nations Mercenary Convention, which prohibits the "recruitment, training, use, and financing of mercenaries". Using private military contractors for offensive operations would arguably be a violation of international law. However, China, France, India, Japan, Russia, the UK, and the US are not signatories to the treaty.

[[AC: Currently active]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide Academi]], formerly Xe Services LLC, Blackwater Worldwide, and Blackwater USA. Should be noted that it's their actions, command structure, and actions of their chairman and CEO, Erik Prince (a former Navy SEAL), that separates themselves from more mundane contractors. That, and the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide_businesses mind-boggling extent]] of both the access to equipment and the variety of businesses that they have. Ironically, though they were perhaps most notorious for their security work (and allegedly fighting alongside coalition military forces in Iraq in the 2004 Battle of Najaf), their chairman/CEO would eventually announce a scaling back of that work (due to the criticisms) in favor of the other services. Blackwater's also interesting in that they're one of the few mercenary companies to have been deployed in America. After Hurricane Katrina, they actually arrived ahead of the National Guard.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draken_International Draken International]] is a private air force that operates a variety of fighter jets, primarily for [[WeaponsUnderstudies aggressor training]]. Sadly they don't have any [[UsefulNotes/SwedesWithCoolPlanes actual]] [[UsefulNotes/DanesWithDrakens Drakens]] in their fleet.
* [[GratuitousLatin Cohors pedestris Helvetiorum a sacra custodia Pontificis]], better known as a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Guard Papal Swiss Guard]], is technically the last one of the legendary Swiss Mercenary Companies mentioned below — in fact, when the modern Swiss constitution finally forbade hiring out Swiss nationals as mercenaries, it explicitly created an exemption for the papal guards.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G4S G4S]] deserves special mention for being the [[MegaCorp 3rd-largest private employer in the world]] as of 2012 (and have reached 2nd place as of 2016, behind only Walmart).
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1US5_h2PkU This video]] provides a quick overview of the 7 largest [=PMCs=] in the world as of 2016. Both Academi and [=G4S=] are on that list.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhuOKiVADXA Chinese PMCs]] are rather new: [[http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/102780/7585653.html private security companies were heavily restricted in China until the government relaxed the relevant laws in 2010]]. Since then, they have been [[https://thediplomat.com/2012/02/enter-chinas-security-firms/?allpages=yes very active in recent years]]; this is a result of them heavily investing in African infrastructure (e.g. hospitals, airports, schools, mines) in some extremely volatile places like Sudan. One of the bigger names in this industry is [[http://www.hwbaoan.com/ Shandong Huawei Security Group.]] The "One Belt, One Road" initiative to open up new trade routes for China across Central Asia and the Indian Ocean has [[http://www.atimes.com/article/chinas-new-silk-road-boon-bodyguards-security-firms/ also proved to be a boon for Chinese security services providers.]]
* The Russian [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagner_Group Wagner Group]] is possibly one of these. They are often used by the Russian government to provide forces for allies in conflicts where it suits them to have plausible deniability. They are notable for having been brazen enough to launch an [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khasham attack]] on a US base in Syria. [[CurbStompBattle It went poorly for them.]] They've been active in Eastern UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}}, UsefulNotes/{{Syria}}, UsefulNotes/{{Sudan}}, and the UsefulNotes/CentralAfricanRepublic in the late 2010s and early 2020s. After years of denying his involvement, Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin finally admitted in September 2022 that he founded the Wagner Group in 2014 to support the Russian forces in Eastern Ukraine. This was due to a leaked video of Prigozhin showing him offering prison inmates freedom if [[TradingBarsForStripes they served for six months]] in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, in which the group has seen its heaviest involvement yet, in fierce battles of attrition such as Bakhmut.

[[AC: Historical/Defunct examples]]
* A well-known example is the private firm [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Outcomes Executive Outcomes]], which contracted its former South African soldiers to win wars, not fight them. The firm, based in Africa, was responsible for several contracted wars, in which other firms that were owned by EO's parent company gained access to oil fields, diamond mines, and the like. Executive Outcomes folded in 1999, but the majority of its operators and equipment were shuffled around into other private military firms owned by the parent corporation. To add to the irony, while most of EO's members (at least initially) were ex-military of the Apartheid Era South Africa, one of their first clients was the anti-apartheid MPLA government of Angola against which they had fought during the Apartheid. EO was even pitted against their former allies, the UNITA rebels. Money is God indeed.
* UK firm [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandline_International Sandline International]] was another case of a real-life Private Military Company and had close links with Executive Outcomes. After it shut down, most of the staff went on to form [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegis_Defence_Services Aegis Defence Services]]. Despite going out of business on April 16, 2004, its [[http://www.sandline.com/site/index.html company website]] remained accessible for an impressively long time until it finally went offline for good at the end of 2020. Their involvement in the situation in Sierra Leone, including the coup against Kabbah, was a source of embarrassment to former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook in 1998.
* Mercenary armies were used during the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Crisis Congo Crisis]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biafra_War Biafra War]], with several mercenaries rising to fame such as Bob Denard, 'Mad Mike' Hoare and Rolf Steiner.
* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Tigers Flying Tigers]] were American pilots who were effectively hired out to the Chinese to fight Japan shortly before the outbreak of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
* In the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar, both the Loyalists and Nationalists employed mercenaries (particularly the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condor_Legion Condor Legion]], which bore the same relationship to the Nazi military machine that the Flying Tigers bore to the US military). Fighter and bomber pilots especially were highly sought-after.
* Creator/GeorgeMacDonaldFraser, in ''Quartered Safe Out Here'', tells of a British officer who recruited local tribesmen to harass the Japanese during WWII. Similar types were generally known in the partisan war and espionage game as they always have been.
* As late as UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, it was considered acceptable for officers to take a leave of absence to go off and fight in someone else's war, provided one didn't fight for one's own country's enemies or their allies. It was considered a valuable way to inject some combat experience into what would otherwise be a purely peacetime officer corps, as well as build up some goodwill on the sly, while still being technically a private venture, and as such completely deniable.
* In 19th and early 20th Century America, corporations would sometimes field a virtual army of mercenaries to break strikes and enforce their interests.
** The [[PinkertonDetective Pinkertons]] were the most notorious and powerful example, to the point that they outgunned the U.S. military during the Homestead Strike, ultimately leading to the Anti-Pinkerton act in 1893.
** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_and_Iron_Police Coal and Iron Police]] of Pennsylvania were another notorious example: although commissioned by the state legislature, they sold the right to appoint officers to individual mine and foundry operators (who would then hire whomever they wanted, usually thugs who would work cheaply). They were primarily used as particularly brutal strike breakers but had full arrest powers on company property. They also served as political muscle for the large industrial interests, which was a factor (along with a number of assaults, rapes, and murders) that led to their disbanding by order of the governor in 1931. The Coal and Iron Police existed alongside the Pennsylvania State Police (which initially only had jurisdiction over rural areas) for 25 years but had more effective power prior to that date.
* The [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober Russian Civil War]] had various foreign mercenary units, sometimes formed from stranded POW or civilian workers and sometimes former Imperial regular units from seceded territories, who fought for the White and Red sides. The Reds had the Latvian Riflemen and the Chinese International Units. The Whites had the Czech Legion. Since the whole place and time was extremely lawless and unpleasant, most of them were just Bloody Mummers with guns.
* Foreign mercenaries were common in China between late 19th and early 20th centuries. With the regular armies in disarray, Qing government, at both national and local levels, hired numerous foreign mercenaries to lead its forces against various rebel forces. Some of these, such as American Frederick Townsend Ward, were genuine foreign adventurers seeking profit and adventure, while others, such as British Charles "Chinese" Gordon, were regular military officers instructed by their governments to help the Chinese government survive. After the empire fell and China was divided among numerous warlords, numerous foreign mercenaries were once again recruited to help these armies.
* The Medieval Italian ''compagnia di ventura'' or companies of adventure, which were basically private mercenary armies ready for any city state to hire. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Italian city-states of Venice, Florence, and Genoa were very rich from their trade with the Levant, yet possessed woefully small national armies. In the event that foreign powers and envious neighbours attacked, the ruling nobles hired domestic and foreign mercenaries to fight for them. The military-service terms and conditions were stipulated in a ''condotta'' (contract) between the city-state and the soldiers (officer and enlisted man), thus, the contracted leader, the mercenary captain commanding, was titled the Condottiere. The mercenaries then formed private companies and armies which sold their services to the states. The condottiere armies got much criticism from Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli, but in the RealLife they proved to be more competent than usually imagined. (Of course, Machiavelli's real concern wasn't so much with their effectiveness as fighters as the fact that the state's military force was a heavily armed gang loyal only to their last paycheck, thus creating instability; Machiavelli was also a big believer in the ability of a citizen-army to instill virtue in the population, so that had an effect as well. Basically, Machiavelli wanted a state to rely on its own people to fight its wars because they had skin in the game and because having the people defend the country encouraged patriotism.)
* Modern standing armies were originally collections of mercenary units under permanent contract to a given ruler (not always mercenaries strictly speaking; most were [[MyMasterRightOrWrong lawful subjects]] of the ruler, but they served under the same terms). They were usually raised privately by a local noble often from his neighbors. In fact, much of the modern traditional ranking system was originally commercial in concept. [[ColonelBadass Colonel]] for instance originally meant "CEO of a ''regimentum''(regiment), that is a mercenary band with a standing royal contract.
* For several hundred years, Swiss mercenaries were considered to be the finest soldiers in Europe. They even wore garish outfits so that everyone on the battlefield would know who they were. This is why the Vatican has the Swiss Guard, and why they wear such funny uniforms. Swiss mercenary companies would not fight an enemy force that included ''another'' Swiss mercenary company, so national loyalty was apparently more important than money in this case.
* Another famous Renaissance-era group of mercenaries were the German Landsknechts, who were modeled after and considered the primary rivals of Swiss mercenaries. The Landsknechts used a combination of halberds and pikes, much like the Swiss, but also employed a comparatively larger number of early firearms and artillery. They were also famous for the ''zweihander'', [[{{BFS}} a sword that could be as long as six feet]] designed to be used like a halberd to fend off multiple enemies and to obstruct enemy pikes. They did not share the Swiss's scruples about fighting their countrymen — or for that matter, doing anything like protecting the papacy, since thousands of them became mutinous and sacked Rome in 1527 after they were not paid (which they did after killing [[LastStand the hopelessly-outnumbered Swiss Guard who stood behind to help the Pope flee to a nearby castle]]).
* Another common source of mercenaries during 17th and 18th centuries was Ireland. Most European Catholic nations during this period had a few units of Irishmen in their armies. This was actually encouraged by the British as every young Irish male with military skills remaining in Ireland was a potential rebel! Descendants of these Irish mercenaries would become heads of states in France (Patrice de [=MacMahon=]) and Chile (Bernardo O'Higgins) even before there was an independent Ireland.
* One common variation known was for a ruler of a small country to simply "rent out" his army to belligerents. These were not strictly mercenaries; the soldiers in them tended to be enlisted in the forces of their lawful prince. However someone enlisting would likely know what he was in for. [[UsefulNotes/AllTheLittleGermanies German states]] were famous for this; their soldiers were such a good buy and their rulers so willing to deal, and they were often times not busy with a war on their own account as major powers were, and so could spare troops. This is the origin of the infamous "Hessian mercenaries" in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution.
* For much of European history, especially in times when PatrioticFervor was a smaller consideration, it was not considered dishonorable to fight in a foreign army as long as one does not fight against one's own government. When a petty-noble was left unemployed, he would often look for work for a foreign ruler. If he was promoted enough he might even [[GoingNative change countries]] and be remembered in history more by the country he fought for then by the country he was born in.
** Von Steuben was an example of one of these that took American service during UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution.
** John Paul Jones was a Scotsman (and ''very much'' anti-English at that) but is most famous for his service to Russian Empire and the United States.
** Prince Eugene of Savoy was Italian but spent his life in the service of the Habsburg monarchy.
** Even [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Napoléon]], merely an Artillery captain at the time, [[WhatCouldHaveBeen considered enlisting to the Russian Army]] at one point, but decided against it so as not to lose seniority because there was a mandatory rank penalty for the foreign officers at the time.
* In the years leading up to UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution, one of the French king's Household Cavalry regiments was known as "Le Royal Suedois" (The Royal Swedish) because all its officers and the bulk of its enlisted men were expatriate Swedes, while the infamous "Royal Allemand" used in the attempt to repress the riots of Paris had its officers and enlisted coming from Germany.
* The largest private armies in history were perhaps the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_armies Presidency armies]] employed by the Honorable East India Company of Great Britain, which essentially [[OneNationUnderCopyright ruled the Indian subcontinent]] for roughly a century. They were eventually nationalized (along with the rest of the EIC's infrastructure) in the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, itself triggered by a series of mutinies among the native soldiers.
* Another famous example is the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almogavars Almogavars]], infantry shock troops recruited all over the Iberian kingdoms with an origin in the Kingdom of Aragon who were feared for their ferocity and their BattleCry, "Awake, iron!", which they would shout as they struck their weapons with a piece of flint, making enormous sparks. A group of them led by Roger de Flor formed the Catalan Company, which was hired to help protect the Byzantine Empire, which they did with great success, but then their leaders were murdered by orders of the Emperor — which led to the Catalan Revenge, a two-year-long war of revenge and looting. The Almogavar survivors would later move to the Duchy of Athens, but after being denied their pay they went and conquered both the Duchies of Athens and Neopatras.
[[/folder]]

Private military contractors are the way that [[LoopholeAbuse some people]] [[RulesLawyer try to weasel out]] of this ban on mercenaries. Even though the largest of these companies employ materiel that is ordinarily associated purely with the military — armor, helicopters, light warships — ''on paper'', they are just your garden-variety mall guards writ large, and they are not authorized to wage war on their own. Officially, these units may be employed only in some duties not involving actively engaging the enemy (though they can do this if forced), such as escorting convoys and guarding some civilian structures. In practice this mandate could be, and often is interpreted ''very'' broadly — "While you're on patrol, don't go and get into a fight with the insurgents at yonder hill three klicks to the southwest, but if they fire first, or if you see anything indicating a possible threat, then by all means, do whatever you must." Note that not all [=PMCs=] necessarily are thinly disguised mercenaries; a private military contractor is any non-government organization contracted by the military, which may include as mundane things as a contract to make and serve food for an army in peacetime.