Single-Player Campaign Characters
For the majority of the single player campaign, the player controls Private Preston Marlowe. Marlowe is part of a squad formerly representing a misfit company in a fictional United States Army battalion known as "Bad Company." Other members of the squad include technology expert Private Terrance Sweetwater, demolitions specialist Private George Haggard Jr., and squad leader Sergeant Samuel Redford. The squad, escaping with gold in the previous game but believed to be caught soon thereafter, now work for a special assignment for the Army in securing a dangerous weapon codenamed "Aurora."
Plot
In October 1944, a group of commandos infiltrate an IJN-controlled island in the Sea of Japan. They secure a Japanese scientist who was working on a secret weapon codenamed Aurora and escape the island on a submarine. But as foreshadowed by the scientist's warnings the commandos witness Aurora being fired and perish, and this sparked a myth within the US army which has been dubbed as "Operation Aurora".
In the present day, Privates Preston Marlowe, Terrence Sweetwater, George Haggard, and Sergeant Samuel Redford fight behind enemy lines in Russia in attempt to secure a device related to Aurora. Despite escaping Russian soldiers and completing their believed final mission in their service, the device is discovered to be a fake. Being impressed with their previous activities, Army General Braidwood assigns them to a special operation of stopping Aurora, much to the disappointment of Redford.
The squad travels to Bolivia in search of an agent named James Aguire. Through many firefights, they save Aguire. Aguire requests the squad to get all his intelligence detailing Aurora from a French satellite that can be controlled from a base in the Andes Mountains. Sweetwater crashes the satellite and the squad successfully defeat a Russian counterattack aimed at destroying the satellite. Marlowe soon finds the data server and proceeds to go down the mountain during a blizzard against Russian patrols, and is soon extracted by the others.
During extraction, Aguire briefs the squad about a man responsible for rebuilding Aurora named Arkady Kirelenko; a Russian Army colonel the squad failed to eliminate in Russia. Kirelenko is believed to be hiding in Chile. Marlowe and the squad aided by US forces find Kirelenko, though he soon escapes. Left only with papers from Kirelenko, Sweetwater discovers there is a shipping manifest for an abandoned ship called the "Sangre Del Toro." Aided by the rest of the squad getting the coordinates, Marlowe finds the ship and retrieves an unnamed compound essential to the use of the weapon and finds out the truth behind Operation Aurora.
While attempting to meet Aguire in Colombia their helicopter is shot down and they become separated. Along with their helicopter pilot Flynn they regroup and escape the local militia. Sarge gives Aguire the compound before finding out that Aguire double-crossed the squad by allying with Kirelenko. Aguire wants revenge against the United States for what happened to his father, one of the commandos in original raid on Aurora, after it is revealed that the US military callously sent them to their deaths. Despite the alliance Kirelenko betrays Aguire and kills him. Flynn intervenes and saves the squad at the cost of his own life.
The squad is mourning for Flynn when they hear Kirelenko talking through a guard's radio. Marlowe kills the guard, and the squad proceeds toward a large metropolitan city. Marlowe and the squad find a large cargo aircraft, an Antonov An-124 (Haggard mistakes it for the larger Antonov An-225 Mriya) that is believed to house Aurora. This is immediately confirmed as the weapon releases a powerful electromagnetic pulse, destroying all electronic equipment in the city and thereby causing all military vehicles to cease functioning; a helicopter nearly crashes onto the squad. Everyone except Marlowe becomes disheartened of continuing the mission. Marlowe encourages them to get on the aircraft. The squad infiltrates the aircraft's lower levels as it takes off. After a firefight to reach the cockpit they find it empty. The squad returns to the cargo bay to find Kirelenko attempting to fire Aurora again, now high over the Texas, and thereby causing havoc on the power grid and crippling the country's ability to defend itself against an attack. With the help of explosives from the plane's armory they gain access to Aurora and Marlowe destroys it.
The firefight and the violent destruction of Aurora has crippled the aircraft, sending it plummeting. The squad bails out with Kirelenko trying to grab the last parachute in mid-air. In free fall Marlowe kills Kirelenko before getting the parachute from Sweetwater. The squad lands and regroups in Haggard's home state of Texas behind the destroyed airplane. Shortly after, General Braidwood drives by to inform them that they are to aid the US Army in defense against the incoming Russian invasion that recently passed through Alaska and Canada, much to the squad's disappointment.
