"In other news, five soldiers from J&R were arrested Monday on charges of murder and assault during a raid on the Covenant held town of Arian. Authorities believe that this was an isolated incident, and there are no plans to investigate J&R itself."

-UNSC News Network

Chapter 4: Killing For Money Since 1994

Springtown General Hospital

Unnerved by the seemingly pointless slaying, the Marines continued sweeping the first floor, and were dismayed to find even more bodies similar to the first one they found. Inside Daniel's head, thoughts raced in an attempt to rationalize what had happened here. Were these patients victims of neglect? Was it some sort of sick form of euthanasia? There was simply no way to tell.

"This ward's clear." Alicia announced, walking back into the hall.

"This one, too." Talls confirmed.

With the first floor clear, that only left the second floor. It was a good thing this was a small rural hospital, or it would have taken just the three of them days to search every nook and cranny. However, as they neared the stairwell, Alicia's grip on her rifle tightened in anxiety. Daniel remembered from his urban combat training that stairwells were often the most lethal part of breaching a hostile structure. An entire attack force would be funneled into a central location, which would turn their numbers from an advantage into a stumbling block, and the enemy would always have the high ground. Daniel remembered exercises where entire assault teams of a dozen or more Marines would be stopped in their tracks by one or two riflemen posted on the top of a stairwell.

"I can take point if you want." Daniel offered.

"Thanks for the concern." Alicia smiled. "But I'm pretty sure I can handle a flight of stairs."

With careful precision, Alicia slowly stalked up the stairs, making sure to keep her rifle pointed toward the upper level. As she rounded the corner, she caught sight of the end of a barrel and quickly reversed direction, diving away as a pair of shotgun blasts peppered the wall behind her with buckshot.

"Cease fire!" Alicia yelled. "We're Marines!"

"Like hell you are!" A distant, slightly rustic voice yelled from the second floor. "You're probably those damn mercs come back to finish the job!"

The three Marines looked at each other. It was evident that something had the man up there spooked. However, they couldn't just leave the man up there, at least not without trying to reason with him first.

"Okay, what's it going to take to prove to you that we're friendly?" Daniel yelled back.

"One of you comes up with hands raised, no weapons, and we'll decide for ourselves."\

Daniel raised an eyebrow. Just one grammatical slip in the man's line suggested to Daniel that the man wasn't the only survivor holed up in this hospital.

"Oh yeah? If you want me to give up my weapon, how about I shove it straight up your ass?" Alicia yelled back sarcastically. The man upstairs was obviously a civilian, since any Marine with a decent amount of common sense would know that it was a cardinal sin to ask a Marine to part with their weapon.

"Whoa, calm down there." Daniel said. "The guy up there is just scared."

"Don't tell me you're actually going to go up there." Alicia blinked. "That's suicide."

"I don't know why you're so worried about me not having a gun." Daniel cracked a weak smile. "Besides, I can't hit a damn thing with it anyway."

"Yeah, well what if they decide to just shoot you the moment you go up?" Alicia asked.

Daniel raised an eyebrow at Alicia's uncharacteristic concern over his well-being. "You make it sound like I'm marching into a room full of Elites. It's just a bunch of civilians scared out of their minds."

"Still…"

"How about this?" Daniel grinned half-jokingly. "If I do get shot, you and Talls here can call in Welkins and bring down the full fury of the UNSC Marine Corps down on the heads of these guys? Deal?"

"Fine." Alicia sighed.

Daniel then handed over his rifle, sidearm, and grenades to Alicia, took a deep breath, and marched up the stairs, arms raised.

"Alright, I'm coming up!" Daniel announced, half expecting to get a faceful of buckshot as a response.

"Slowly then, with arms raised!" The man cautioned.

As he reached the second landing, Daniel saw a makeshift barricade of tables, desk chairs, and gurneys erected in front of the door to the second floor. Behind the barricade stood two figures. One was a janitor armed with an antique double barreled shotgun and the second was a wounded Helljumper with one arm in a sling and the other holding an M6D pistol.

"He's a Marine." The Helljumper confirmed, lowering his pistol. This seemed to instill some relief in the janitor, who also lowered his weapon.

"Thank god." The janitor sighed.

"Private Henderson, reporting for duty, sir!" The wounded Helljumper saluted Daniel.

"At ease, Private." Daniel returned the salute and turned to the janitor. "I've got two more Marines on the first floor. Is it okay if I bring them up?"

"Sure." The janitor nodded. "I'll go and tell Dr. Sorel the good news."

A few minutes later, a rather tired looking, haggard man in a doctor's coat arrived and he greeted the Marines with a weak smile. "Well, we've been wondering when you'd get here. As you can see, the wait wasn't kind on us. I'm Dr. Sorel."

"Captain Avers." Daniel returned the greeting. Curious about the situation downstairs, he then asked, "What happened here?"

"It's a long story." Sorel sighed.

"We've got time." Talls responded. "I just got off the line with the Sergeant. He can get the whole convoy up here in about half an hour."

"Henderson, Neil, could you please go check the perimeter?" Sorel asked the Marine and the janitor.

"Sure thing, Doctor." Neil the Janitor nodded and went down the stairs with Henderson, shotgun in hand.

"Talls, go with them." Daniel ordered.

"Yes sir." Talls nodded and scurried down the stairs after Henderson and Neil.

"So, back to the point, what happened here?" Alicia asked. "Why are you still in this town?"

"It all started a few weeks ago, or was it days? I've completely lost track of time." Sorel sighed. "Anyways, it was shortly after the Covenant showed up and began landing on the surface. Once it was clear they were concentrating on the south, people started packing up and moving north. It was a complete mess. The local Marine and Guard units were completely overwhelmed with the sheer numbers of evacuees streaming through. Because they had to go and fight off the Covenant, the local government turned to security contractors to keep the peace."

"That's nothing new." Alicia tilted her head in curiosity. "It's common for the UNSC to contract private military forces to secure population centers and other civilian areas of interest."

"Yes, well, something was different about this group." Sorel sighed. "Once the majority of the evacuees left, the battle was already beginning to turn sour and the few military units that were left were frantically falling back, and ignored small towns like this one. With no other military presence, the contractors here believed they would gain more from just looting the town rather than protecting it."

"You mean, they just started tearing the place apart?" Daniel blinked. "Nobody stopped them?"

"There wasn't anybody that could." Sorel shook his head sadly, wincing at as memories he wanted to forget surfaced to his mind again. "They shot anybody who protested, and they started executing the wounded here because they were liabilities to them."

"Obviously they didn't finish the job." Alicia pointed out.

"Right. Me, Henderson, Neil, and a some skeleton staff who stayed behind managed to evacuate what patients we could to the second floor and we fortified ourselves up here. After we repelled a few intrusion attempts, the contractors decided we weren't worth the effort and left us alone."

"When was this?" Daniel wondered if these contractors could still be around.

"A week or two ago, but they still occasionally stop by to pick up more supplies and to harass us." Sorel replied. "We were too afraid to try and leave the hospital, in fear of being ambushed by them."

"Well you have nothing to worry about now." Alicia said confidently. "We haven't seen anybody else when we came in, and those bastards do come back, we'll be here to kick their asses."

"Thank you." Sorel smiled weakly, as if it was something he had forgotten to do.

"So then how many people do you have holed up in here?" Daniel looked around the ransacked rooms and halls. "You said you had some extra staff and some patients up here."

"Including Henderson and Neil, I've got a nurse, two orderlies, and eight patients." Sorel said, leading the Marines down the hall. "Two of them are fairly stable, and the rest, well, let's just say its better I show you."

Sorel stopped at the last door in the hall. He drew a keycard out of his pocket and used it to unlock the door. As the trio stepped inside the room, they were ambushed by about a half-dozen small figures.

"Mr. Sorel!" The combined voices of six children cried out in a chorus. "You're back!"

"I was only gone for five minutes!" Sorel said, hugging each of the children.

Daniel paused. From his initial estimate, the ages of the children ranged from ages six to nine, and were divided evenly by sex, with three boys and three girls. They wore regular street clothing, though they were ragged and dirty from weeks of infrequent washing and care. He then looked over to Alicia, and was surprised because it looked as if she had become a completely different person. Gone was the somewhat aloof, depressed, frustrated, professional conscript she usually pretended to be. She gave one of her few genuine smiles as when she saw the children.

"I didn't know you had such a powerful maternal instinct." Daniel wisecracked.

"There's a lot you still don't know about me." Alicia said, still smiling as she returned the hugs the children were giving her.

Daniel blinked when he heard these words. He realized that they were true, but were not really meant to be an attack in any way. He'd only been with Alicia for a few days, and he was already feeling as if they had been childhood friends or something. It was a feeling that Daniel couldn't shake off, and didn't really want to stop.

Alicia proved to be a rather spectacular role model for the children. In the space of minutes, they were already calling her "Auntie Alicia" and cheered when she pulled out one of her last candy bars she had been carrying with her.

"A rambunctious little lot, aren't they?" Daniel said as he slipped in beside Sorel.

"The one time I'm grateful that the day care center was on the center floor." Sorel replied with a weak grin. "These kids are all orphans, or I'm pretty sure they are. They came in with the wounded that were brought here…"

"Jesus, do they know?" Daniel blanched.

"Yeah." Sorel sighed. "But kids are interesting. They're a lot more resilient than you'd think. When they realized that their current role models were gone, they naturally switched to new ones."

"Well then our convoy is going to get a nasty shock then." Daniel smiled when his radio suddenly buzzed.

"Captain, we've got contact!" Talls reported.

"Report." Daniel narrowed his eyes.

"Not sure. They're Human, but definitely not from our convoy. They're still at least fifteen minutes out."

"What about Henderson and Neil? What do they think?"

"Just a second sir, Henderson's coming on the line." Talls said.

"Captain." Henderson's voice filled Daniel's ears now. "It's those mercs from before. They're back."

"Are you sure?" Daniel said, not wanting to accidentally shoot up another unit of Marines.

"Definitely." Talls confirmed. "They're not wearing Marine standard issue. Its custom armor with some kind of corporate logo I can't make out."

"Damnit." Daniel seethed. "Don't engage. Just keep your distance and keep track of them."

"Roger." Talls said before cutting the link.

"What do you think they're here for?" Daniel asked Sorel.

"Probably to raid the town for more supplies." Sorel shrugged. "They've been doing it for the past few weeks now. They generally leave us alone though since they don't want to risk any losses for so little gain."

"Contact! Contact!" Talls yelled desperately through the radio. "They're all over us! Shit!"

Suddenly, there was a loud explosion and the transmission devolved into static.

"Talls! Talls!" Daniel yelled, trying to get a response.

"What's wrong?" Alicia asked, her expression suddenly hardening.

"Apparently the troublemakers are back." Daniel armed his rifle and turned to Sorel. "Can you hold the fort here?"

"Yes, of course." Sorel nodded. "My staff has 'appropriated' equipment from the contractors we killed and I've learned in the past few weeks that it was a good idea to learn to handle weapons."

"Alright." Daniel nodded to Alicia. "Let's go."

Randy's Eats
Earth

Meanwhile, back on Earth, the entirety of the planet was in a firestorm of gossip and rumors. David had finally decided to drop the ball and had the will publically read. He particularly made sure that the will would find its way into the hands of a judge who just happened to love huge, public, and most importantly, controversial cases. The fact that news crews from at least seven different networks just happened to be in the courtroom at the time was just icing on the cake.

Of course, the news of this mystery heir to Bellarius' fortune was dominating the newsnets, completely supplanting the usual wartime propaganda. David suspected that the information warfare specialists in the Office of Naval Intelligence were having a field day with this. Anything that could distract the public from the war was a gold mine for them. This story would get milked for every ounce it had.

Right now, David was having lunch with one of his private investigators, Bogard Bluth. Bogard was an ex-ONI operative, and even though he was officially retired, he still had considerable connections in both the intelligence and law enforcement communities. He now made his living as a private investigator and consultant for high-level clients.

"Wow, this job is a real doozy, you know that?" Bogard grinned as he took a bite out of his turkey sandwich. "I really pity the poor girl, what with having to deal with the wrath of Bellarius' kids."

"So that means you found something?" David asked, leaning forward.

"Oh, I found plenty. They're pretty damn terrible at covering their tracks." Bogard laughed, sipping his soda.

"So give me the rundown then."

"Well, they called the regular list of guys and most of them are onboard." Bogard said. "You know, Booth, Alter, Duran, Harvey, Ruby, the usual suspects."

"What about Wily?"

"God forbid." Bogard laughed. "He's out of their price range by several magnitudes. Plus, this isn't his kind of hit. He goes for higher level players, like Fleet Admirals and political figures, and he's pretty damn subtle about it. That's one bullet your client managed to dodge."

"Then what's got you so worried then?" David asked.

"It's not just hitmen they're contracting." Bogard leaned forward and whispered, "They've got PMCs involved too."

"I'm not surprised." David shook his head. "Even in an honestly run PMC, they've always got at least one or two guys in them willing to do 'side jobs'."

"Then you wouldn't need me to tell you that the UNSC has contracted at least five PMCs on Rama II." Bogard sniffed. "Which means approximately eight thousand well armed, well trained, potential assassins are milling around with your little heiress."

"Thanks, Boe." David got out of his seat and dropped several bills on the table. "This should cover it."

"Ah, there is no other business transaction more venerable than the good old fashioned exchange of information." Bogard grinned, pocketing the bills.

"I'd love to know where you get all that info." David grinned.

"Ah, you know spies." Bogard laughed. "Bunch of whiny little girls!"

"Weren't you a spy?"

"I'm an ex-spy." Bogard sniffed. "There's difference."

"I'm sure." David said before exiting the restaurant. He then reached for his Slipspace phone.

Springtown

By the time Daniel and Alicia closed in on the source of the gunfire, they found that everything was in a complete mess. They saw Neil and Talls taking cover behind a derelict car exchanging fire with a over two dozen black armored figures with three armed Warthogs.

"We have to help them." Daniel said, getting ready to move in.

"Wait!" Alicia stopped him. "We're at their flank. It's the perfect chance to ambush them."

"We'd better hurry then." Daniel took another look at the battle. "It doesn't look as if they'll last long."

"Don't worry, I've got it handled." Alicia raised her battle rifle and peered through the scope, zeroing in on the nearest target. She focused on one of the Warthog gunners and carefully nestled the crosshairs over his head. She then glanced at his nametag and whispered, "Sorry about this, Emille."

Alicia then pulled the trigger. The three round burst hit a bit lower than Alicia had intended. Instead of a clean headshot, the rounds instead tore through poor Trooper Emille's throat. The mercenary grabbed his throat in an attempt to stem the tide of blood gushing out and gurgled as fell off the Warthog as his final agonizing moments passed by.

Almost instantly, Alicia snapped to the other two Warthog gunners and took them down with precision bursts. The mercenaries still didn't quite realize that they were under attack, which gave her and Daniel a chance to wreak more havoc. They unloaded everything they had into the tightly packed enemy formation, mowing down a good number of them. At this point, the enemy squad began to lose its coherency and individual members began breaking off or falling back. Sensing weakness, Neil and Talls broke cover and attacked with renewed vigor, adding to the Marines' mighty casualty count.

"Is that all of them?" Neil asked.

"Pretty much." Alicia said, inspecting several of the bodies on the ground. "I've counted about sixteen bodies here, and the rest ran off. I don't think they're coming back any time soon."

"Where's Henderson?" Daniel asked, looking around for the missing Marine.

"He didn't make it." Talls shook his head sadly. "They didn't even pause to ask us who we were. They just shot on sight."

"Bastards." Alicia spat. "Just who the hell do they think they are?"

"Well, let's see." Daniel bent down and examined several of the bodies for any identifying item or logo. He saw their shoulder emblems, which was a silver snake in a tight coil, fangs bared and ready to attack. "Silver Serpents."

"What?" Neil asked curiously.

"It's a PMC." Daniel explained. "One of the biggest employed by the UNSC. They've been plagued with a lot of lawsuits over the years for alleged misconduct, human rights violations, and war crimes."

"Well that explains things." Alicia sighed. "Probably a good reason why they weren't proper Marines."

"Anyways, we shouldn't stay here for long." Daniel stood up. "I think it would be safe to assume that these guys were part of a larger unit. Let's just take what we can use and get out of here."

With that, Daniel, Alicia, Talls, and Neil appropriated as much salvageable weapons and gear as they could and loaded them into the first two Warthogs. They also loaded Henderson's body into the third one, feeling that it wouldn't be right to leave him lying out there to rot with the Silver Serpents.

It took a while to navigate the abandoned streets to return to the hospital, but by the time the small trio of Warthogs arrived, the convoy had already reached the hospital and were busy evacuating the inhabitants within. Daniel could see several people driving a few abandoned ambulances to add to their small fleet of medical vehicles.

"Good to see you're okay." Welkins sighed in relief as he met Daniel and Alicia. "Sorel told me everything that happened. Can't believe those guys would sink so low."

"There's no guarantee that there aren't more of them out there." Daniel warned. "We'll have to stay on alert, and all of our foraging parties can't leave without armed escorts."

"I was thinking the same." Welkins agreed. "I'll give us forty eight hours to grab whatever these snakes didn't manage to loot, and we'll pack up and keep moving."

"I'll go out and see to it that those guys who retreated don't come back and cause any trouble." Alicia said, arming her rifle and grabbing several fresh clips.

"You need any backup?" Welkins asked.

"That's okay." Alicia gave a rather fake smile. "You need your men to protect the civilians here. I should be fine on my own."

"I thought," Daniel said as he grabbed several fresh rifle clips as well, "that the meaning of Semper Fi meant that we never let a Marine do a job alone."

"Th- thanks." Alicia stammered, caught off guard by the unexpected kindness.

From what he saw, Welkins was savvy enough to know when to bow out. "Well I need to go manage the foraging efforts. Just remember, forty eight hours and we're packing up and leaving."

J&R Mobile Command Center
Third Division "Silver Serpents"
Currently operating in enemy-held zone on Rama II

"Major, we've just received a report from one of our scout squads." Lieutenant Wilson, who was the communications officer, announced.

"Is that so?" Major Beck Gotts frowned as he looked at his data screens. "What's the situation?"

"Not good." Wilson paused, afraid of incurring Gotts' wrath. "They reported running into enemy resistance at Springtown and were forced to fall back."

"Typical." Gotts sighed. "What's the damage?"

"Eighty percent casualties." Wilson gulped.

"What." Gotts raised an eyebrow. "Explain. Now."

"They ran into some Marines or something, tore em up pretty bad." Wilson said. "They managed to get a single picture of the attackers."

Gotts glanced at his screen and saw an image begin to resolve, showing a rather poor quality shot of two Marines gunning down several of Gotts' men. He frowned as he examined the picture, but decided to worry about it later. "Is there anything else?"

"We've also got an shadow job." Wilson added. "It just came in three hours ago."

"Just a second." Gotts flipped switch on his control board. It activated various anti-eavesdropping devices and countermeasures to prevent any data or conversations from escaping the command center and falling into the wrong hands. "Alright, go."

"It's a hit order." Wilson handed a printout to Gotts. "There's a name, but that's pretty much it. Kind of odd, since the secondary target has more info than the primary one."

Gotts flipped the page over and took one look at the picture attached to it. He then blinked and turned back to his screen, putting the picture up against it. He found that the two faces, apart from several years of age and some bad resolution, was the exact same person.

"Well." Gotts grinned. "It seems like half our job is already done for us. Which means…"

He looked at the second Marine who was standing next to Daniel. He was immediately stricken by her appearance, and was almost absolutely sure that it was this Jennifer Vail that was described in the report. Why else would the pair be moving around and fighting together? He grinned as he stared at female Marine. He'd do the hit all right, but not without having a little bit of fun first…