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Sergeant Gary "Roach" Sanderson (1987 - 15 August 2016) was a British soldier and operative in NATO Task Force 141, a multinational spec ops unit. He participated in several operations leading up to and during the early days of World War III, until he was betrayed and killed by General Herschel Shepherd after retrieving Vladimir Makarov's data from his Georgian-Russian border safehouse.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Gary Sanderson was born in 1987 in England, eventually joining the British Army. He qualified for the Special Air Service, joining in 2008. After an exemplary service for four years in the Middle East and former Soviet Bloc, where he earned the nickname "Roach" after surviving a nearly-fatal explosion, Sanderson was invited to NATO Task Force 141 in 2013.

TF141 service[]

Operation Kingfish[]

On 8 October 2013, Task Force 141 conducted Operation Kingfish, a raid on one of Russian terrorist and gun runner Vladimir Makarov's safehouses in the Karkonosze Mountains of Ukraine. The team consisted of Captain John Price, Sergeant John "Soap" MacTavish, Simon "Ghost" Riley, and Roach. Two Delta Force operators also participated in the raid: Derek "Frost" Westbrook and Alex "Sandman" Hart. The operation failed spectacularly, resulting in Price's capture and internment in a gulag 40 miles east of Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka Krai, Russia.

ACS recovery[]

In August 2016, a US military satellite equipped with an ACS module crashed in the Tian Shan Mountain Range of Kazakhstan, being recovered by Spetsnaz GRU and transported to a Russian air base nearby. Lieutenant General Herschel Shepherd, the commander of Task Force 141, ordered now-Captain John MacTavish and Roach to recover the ACS module from the satellite.

On 11 August, the two managed to arrive at the base after a long and treacherous mountain climb. After sneaking through and killing several unaware Spetsnaz operatives during a blizzard, Roach planted explosives on the fuel depot and made his way to the hangar where the module was located. While MacTavish searched the satellite itself, Roach headed to the upper level of the hangar to look for the ACS module, finding it hooked up to a computer copying the data.

After Roach grabbed the ACS module, Major Mikhail Petrov, the commander of the airbase, arrived with a team of men and surrounded the hangar door. He commanded Roach to exit with his hands up or be fired upon; however, Roach instead activated the explosives on the fuel depot to distract them. This allowed Roach and MacTavish to eliminate the swarm of men and begin making their escape, eventually commandeering snowmobiles and racing to the LZ, exfiltrating from Kazakhstan.

Capture of Alejandro Rojas[]

A day after the Zakhaev International Airport massacre, on 13 August, Roach deployed with 141 to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to capture Brazilian Militia member and arms dealer Alejandro Rojas, who supplied Makarov with the weapons he used to commit the terrorist attack. After nearly being killed by Rojas' assistant, Jorge Amaral Menezes, Roach shot Amaral in the calf as he tried to run from the 141 operatives. While Ghost and MacTavish tortured Amaral, Roach, Jack Royce, and Kitale "Meat" Beahan proceeded through the favela, only to be ambushed by nearly thirty Brazilian Militia members. Royce and Meat were killed, though Roach managed to kill his attackers and proceed further into the favela. He was informed by MacTavish that Rojas was running, so Roach began pursuing him while fighting through dozens of militia members. Rojas was eventually tackled out a window by MacTavish, before being tortured for information on Makarov by Ghost and MacTavish.

After doing so, the team attempted to contact Shepherd for evac, but he was preoccupied with the invasion of the East Coast by Russia; as a result, an old contact codenamed "Nikolai" was called to help evac them in his Pave Low. After a canceled landing, Roach and the rest of 141 were forced to fight through hundreds of militiamen until they eventually reached the site. Roach was separated after a fall, and had to run to Nikolai's helicopter without his weaponry, jumping to the rope ladder after several close calls.

Oil rig[]

Gulag assault[]

Missile in the air[]

Safehouse and death[]

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