Shepherd

> To do good, you gotta do some bad. When we shit we bury it, that's how it works.
>
> Shepherd

General **Shepherd** is a mentioned character in *Call of Duty: Modern Warfare* and a main antagonist in *Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II*.

## Biography

### Forming Task Force 141

In 2019, General Shepherd gathered information regarding three individuals for John Price: Kyle "Gaz" Garrick, Johnny "Soap" MacTavish, and Simon "Ghost" Riley. Together with Agent Kate Laswell of the CIA, these individuals went on to form the counter-terrorism unit Task Force 141, which fell under Shepherd's command.

### Assassination of General Ghorbrani

Shepherd oversaw the assassination of General Ghorbrani, the commander of the Iranian Quds Force, on July 15, 2022. The operation was jointly carried out by Task Force 141 and the PMC Shadow Company, which was led by Commander Phillip Graves. Ghorbrani had flown from Iran to Al Mazrah in the United Republic of Adal on a mission of peace. Ghost scouted the airport and confirmed Ghorbrani's presence. Shepherd then ordered Graves to carry out a missile strike, which killed Ghorbrani and his Adali entourage.

### Arms smuggling

Meanwhile, Shepherd had been working with Shadow Company to conduct an off-the-books operation smuggling American weapons to allies in the Middle East to aid them against the Russians. While Shepherd established this operation with good intentions, it was nonetheless illegal, and proved to have dire consequences.

In August 2022, a Shadow Company convoy transporting a shipment of three missiles was ambushed by Russian PMC Konni, who seized the missiles under the employment of Russian Ultranationalists. The Russians then gave them to Major Hassan Zyani, Ghorbrani's second-in-command, who was coordinating with Al-Qatala to carry out a revenge plot against the United States. However, Shepherd knew only that the missiles had been taken, not by whom, and over the following months he attempted to bury all documentation of his illicit activities while having Shadow Company quietly search for the missiles.

### Hunting Hassan Zyani and the missiles

In October 2022, Task Force 141 stumbled across one of the stolen American missiles during a mission to capture Zyani in a warehouse near Al Mazrah held by Al-Qatala. Shepherd and Agent Laswell were overseeing the mission from his office in Washington, D.C. Laswell suggested that quickly analyzing the missile's systems could determine how it fell into Zyani's hands, but Shepherd ordered the missile's immediate destruction, arguing it was too dangerous to risk even the smallest chance of the enemy reclaiming it. Laswell acquiesced to her superior officer's order, but began digging into Department of Defense files under the general's nose to learn more about the background of the missiles.

Seeing the opportunity to eliminate the missiles, protect his reputation, and neutralize Zyani all at once, Shepherd assigned Task Force 141 to cooperate with Shadow Company in the hunt for Zyani. The Mexican special forces unit Los Vaqueros was also looped into the operation after Zyani was found to be working with the Las Almas Cartel. Zyani had been paying the cartel to smuggle two of the missiles out of the Middle East by way of Spain to be used in attacks on the United States. One missile was set up on an abandoned oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that the cartel had been using for its drug running, and was intended for a strike on New Orleans. The other missile was brought into the United States at Chicago and kept in Arch Industries Tower, which was owned by a cartel shell company, and its target was to be Washington, D.C. The cartel was fully aware of what they were smuggling and what the missiles would be used for, with its leader, Valeria Garza, reasoning that spurring America to redouble its war on terror would distract it from countering the cartels' drug business.

Task Force 141, Shadow Company, and Los Vaqueros captured Garza in Las Almas to interrogate her for the locations of Zyani and the missiles. Garza cut a deal to provide the intel piecemeal in exchange for her release. She first revealed the oil rig missile, which the joint forces successfully destroyed. At this point, Shepherd was confident that the final missile and Zyani would soon be neutralized, and he. out of paranoia, moved to cut Task Force 141 and Los Vaqueros out of the mission so that Shadow Company could finish cleaning up his mess with no one else the wiser about his involvement. Shepherd ordered Shadow Company to seize Los Vaqueros' headquarters facility to use as a base; when Task Force 141 and Los Vaqueros resisted, Shadow Company detained Colonel Alejandro Vargas and his men, and attempted to kill Riley and MacTavish, who went on the run in Las Almas and managed to elude Graves' forces.

Upon escaping from the city and freeing Los Vaqueros, Laswell and Price informed the group why Shepherd had turned against them: Laswell's research had uncovered redacted files detailing the general's off-the-books arms deals. The two units temporarily banded together and formed Ghost Team, then retook the headquarters and killed Commander Graves. Garza, who was still in custody in the headquarters, was confronted again, and she divulged that Zyani was with the last missile in Chicago. Task Force 141, with the help of US MARSOC Marines, infiltrated Arch Industries Tower on November 4, 2022 and killed Zyani. Although Zyani managed to launch the missile before his demise, MacTavish successfully detonated it mid-flight before it impacted Washington.

### In the wind

After Task Force 141 discovered Shepherd's malfeasance, the general went off the grid. His whereabouts are currently unknown.

## Gallery

Shepherd Promo MWII.jpgLaswell and Shepherd MWII.jpgKate Laswell and Shepherd discussing Hassan Zyani.