In the middle of Europe, in an as-yet unnamed nation bearing a striking resemblance to Switzerland, we find Mark Hazzard, Mal Rossi, and Louis 'Treetop' Barrington on the job, essentially hired as bodyguards for Kurtz, an older gent who is currently running for president. Basically, their job is to ensure that nobody causes the man harm, and the trio are doing their job quite well.

However, when several protesters show up at a rally for Kurtz, the candidate's other men begin to stomp all over them and their posters, and when one of Kurtz's 'brown shirts' tries to kick in a female protester's head, Mark can stand no more. In a rage, Hazzard pummels the man senseless, and leaves the scene before he's inclined to harm his current boss - or the man's other employees.

Later, at their hotel room, the trio of mercenaries are having something of an argument regarding their current contract. Basically, Mark and Mal were kind of unhappy about the job in general, having seen Kurtz's men in action, but Treetop was only worried about taking the money and running, regardless of what the man was up to. And, as is usually the case, Mark was more worried about the morality involved.

When the argument devolved into a shouting match, Treetop stormed off angry, and Mark went to get some fresh air himself shortly thereafter. Unbeknownst to him, however, Kurtz had ordered his 'brown shirts' to take care of Hazzard for his impertinence, and as luck would have it, the man who got the job was the one that Mark stomped the crap out of earlier that day.

Luckily for him, Mark is quite a paranoid man, and found out that he was being stalked in time. After dealing with his would-be assassin, Mark thought he sensed another assailant and, pulling his Uzi out, drew a bead on the woman he'd saved from a good kicking earlier. Relieved, Mark sprung up a conversation with the activist, and she told him a startling tale about his employer.

Taking him home, the woman (Frieda) introduced Mark to her father, Rolf, who had been crippled by Kurtz 'brown shirts'. He then showed Mark some old footage starring Kurtz, as he drove a Nazi tank against various resistance leaders in the past. The film then showed him commanding several troops to mow down all manner of innocent civilian-types, with a sly grin on his face the whole time.

Though Rolf and Frieda implored Mark to help them tell the people about Kurtz past, even though they seemed unwilling to listen, Mark had to decline. You see, even though he despised the man, he couldn't bring himself to break his contract - that would be unprofessional. Preparing to leave, Mark then found himself at the receiving end of Frieda's... thanks... for saving her life, earlier.

Come morning, at another rally, Mark told his merc buddies about Kurtz, but Treetop went on and on about that being irrelevant, as they had a contract. Mark shrugged this off, trying to just get the job done and forget about it, no matter how dirty it made him feel. That was when Mal noticed that Kurtz was giving Hazzard the hairy eyeball, but before he could act, Kurtz's minions knifed up poor Frieda!

Totally enraged at this point, Mark gunned down the man who killed her, and several other 'brown shirts' who tried to avenge their pal. Seeing the look in Hazzard's eyes, Kurtz fled, with Hazzard right on his tail. However, Treetop tried to stop Hazzard from ruining his precious contract, and even pulled a gun on his partner, at which point Mark gunned him down, firing several slugs into his legs.

Caring not for his former pal, Mark swiped a car and chased down Kurtz, who had made his way to his palatial home - and his armed security force. Tearing into the place with his stolen car, Mark wiped out Kurtz guards systematically, and then made his way to Kurtz himself. Easily disarming the aging war criminal, Mark then waited for the media and police to show up - Kurtz had called 'em both, you see.

Once the local authorities finally dealt with Kurtz, bringing him to justice at last, they let Mark go, and he made for the States as soon as he could. Arriving at his Gramercy Park apartment, Mark realized that the place was really Treetop's, and decided that he couldn't stay there any longer. As such, he eventually drifted over to the Princess' place, and she took him in without question...

This issue began in a nameless region of Central America, where Mark Hazzard and his pal, Sgt. Major Peel, were being paid to train a rag-tag band of freedom fighters how to, well, fight. Their graduation mission, of course, was an assault on an armed convoy, one that went off without a hitch thanks to advanced, Army-style training. Once they'd taught the men all they could, Mark and company went home.

On vacation a few days later, Mark was touring the Smithsonian with his son, Scott, when he received a mysterious call over the museum's courtesy phone. After answering this call, Mark found out that a friend of those rebels' Commander needed to speak to him, as the man had been captured by government forces... of course, this friend couldn't pay Hazzard anything for the rescue mission.

Having become friends with said Commander, Mark decided to take the job anyway, and went about rounding up several pals to accompany him. Of course, not too many were hot on the idea of working for free, including his pal Ritter, an old buddy from the 'Nam who was all about incentives. Of course, after his refusal, the Commander's friend showed up in his office with an offer he couldn't refuse...

Meanwhile, Mark managed to scrounge up at least two willing participants in his rescue job: the Sergeant Major, who also was pals with the rebel Commander, and the Doc, a former South Vietnamese field medic. Once they'd collected the appropriate equipment, the trio headed back to that nameless plot of land in Central America, and went about planning their little rescue op.

Rounding up several remnants of the Commander's troops, the trio of mercenaries assaulted the facility holding the man, the Puno del Diablo (the Fist of the Devil) mercilessly. Executing their plan perfectly, Mark and his pals managed to recover the Commander, and thanks to the Doc's excellent work, they managed to ensure he'd live to fight another day - assuming they got out of the Puno without incident.

After the freedom fighters dealt with the rest of their opposition, the mercs evac'd the Commander, crossing several hours worth of thick jungle in order to displace any attempt to follow them. However, as the team attempted to rendezvous with the rest of the rebels, they quickly found that one of the Commander's own men, Esteban, was in fact a government stooge, and he'd turned them in!

When Esteban came down to gloat at the surrounded and ambushed party, Mark acted quickly to break the man's back, and as the Sergeant Major threw down a smoke grenade, the remnants of his force ducked for cover against the impending retaliation. Prepared to face their imminent doom, the mercs were suddenly surprised when their oppositon got mowed down from on high.

Out of nowhere, a fully armed A-10 bomber showed up to utterly annihilate the government forces menacing Mark, the Sgt. Major, and the Doc - an A-10 piloted by none other than Ritter himself! It seems that, though he couldn't offer money for the job, the Commander's American pal could definitely offer up some equipment, and was able to let Ritter fly one of his all-time favorite planes for the very first time.

Things wouldn't be the same from here on out, however, as the Doc decided to stay on with the Commander, offering whatever aid she could in the liberation of this tiny nation from it's corrupt government officials. And, though he was unhappy with Ritter from not showing up from the get go, and thus saving many lives, Mark eventually got over it - after all, he'd have been a dead man otherwise...

For the third straight night in a row, Mark woke up with a start, having been experiencing nightmares about his conflict with his former pal, Treetop. The reason he'd been having them was because he wasn't doing anything during the day, and his ennui was starting to catch up with him. As such, the Priestess tried to comfort him, but ultimately failed, and as such, Mark tried harder to get another job.

This was more difficult than it would seem though, as after the incident in Europe, Mark had been labeled a contract breaker, and nobody in mercenary circles seemed to want to hire the man. About to call it quits again, Mark was surprisingly given a lead by a straight-laced looking fellow, one who didn't describe the job at hand, but instead gave him a plane ticket to Rome, Italy.

Thinking the whole thing to be stupid, going in without a clue like that, Mark was pleasantly surprised that nobody ambushed him en route, and without incident, he arrived at a small monastery in Rome. Once there, Mark was introduced to the leader of a Catholic sect known as the Cestus Dei (the Fist of God), and his mission was explained in detail - including a relevant history lesson, too!

You see, the Cestus Dei launched a expedition into Israel in search of the supposed Ring of the Fisherman, a holy relic of great import, an expedition led by one Father Capistran. However, extremist Lebanese terrorists caught wind of this mission, and once Capistran actually located the Ring, they killed everybody present save for the father, took him and the ring, and made for home.

Thus, it was Mark's job, with the assistance of Cestus Dei man Father Kevin Eugene Johnson, to retrieve both Father Capistran and the Ring of the Fisherman, if possible. Somewhat wary about the job, Mark nonetheless took it once the Cestus Dei's leader reassured him about his role in the mission, as well as his specific purposes for hiring a merc who would fight for what he thought right.

Making their way to Lebanon, Mark and his ersatz partner met up with an old friend of Mark's, a man named Ahmal, who was somewhat in the know about clandestine goings-on in the area. Ahmal promised to find out where Father Capistran was being held, but as he did so, armed thugs fired on Ahmal's band - and, incidentally, Mark and Kevin. Of course, the party obliged their foes by firing back!

Once they ended that little debacle, Mark went to meet a friend of Ahmal's, who would deliver to them the guns and information they would need. He offered to meet Hazzard at his hotel room in a half hour, and on their way back, Mark and Kevin were ambushed by random thugs. After dealing with this nuisance, the duo then returned to their room to find the door was ajar.

Busting in, they found a package from Ahmal, including a map indicating the specific hidey hole of those terrorist kidnappers. Less than half an hour later, Hazzard and Johnson were there, killing the guards all silent-like and forcing their way into an abandoned (save for those terrorists) church, and saw about six guards holding Capistran, who was bound and hanging from the back wall.

Gunning down thugs left and right, Mark and Kevin took out everybody but the group's leader, who held Capistran hostage. When he vowed to kill the man if Mark and his side kick didn't drop their weapons, Kevin just opened up on the man, actually shooting both him and Capistran dead - though it was hard to tell if this was intentional. With that, the duo grabbed Capistran's papers and the ring, and left.

Of course, Mark read those papers before handing them over to Kevin, and found out that the Cestus Dei was actually a sect banned by the Catholic church, and that this dig of theirs was intended to get them back in the good graces of the church. Of course, once Capistran was abducted, the Cestus Dei tried to buy his abductors off, and then reneged on the deal. And Mark called their leader on this.

Of course, the man tried to cover up the Cestus Dei's activities by having Kevin kill Mark, but Hazzard was too frosty to get caught unaware by Kevin's assault, and Mark took him down... hard! With that, he took his money and then let the authorities he'd alerted earlier step in to arrest both religious fanatics. Once that was settled, Mark made his way home, making a few charitable donations on the way...