Major Hassan Zyani (8 April 1984 - 4 November 2022) was an Iranian soldier and anti-West terrorist, having served under General Omid Ghorbrani of Quds Force and worked directly with al-Qatala and the Las Almas Cartel after Ghorbrani's assassination. Zyani was killed shortly after launching a ballistic missile from Chicago to Washington, DC; the ballistic missile detonated in the middle of its launch course and Zyani was sniped by Lieutenant Simon "Ghost" Riley as he held Johnny "Soap" MacTavish hostage.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Little is known of Zyani's early life, though CIA reports established that he was born on 8 April 1984 in Tehran, Iran and eventually joined the IRGC when he came of age. He worked his way up to join the elite Quds Force, serving directly under General Omid Ghorbrani, a man Zyani admired greatly.
Assassination of Ghorbrani[]
In July 2022, Ghorbrani was assassinated in Al Mazrah, Abkhazia while making a weapons deal with a Russian Ultranationalist sect of the Russian Army, having been killed via a ballistic missile launched by Commander Phillip Graves of Shadow Company. This greatly angered Zyani, interpreting it as a direct attack on Iran. When the Iranian government refused to retaliate, Zyani called them cowards and went rogue from Quds Force.
Ballistic missile crisis[]
Prelude[]
Zyani began affiliating himself with al-Qatala and the Ultranationalists, discovering off-the-book plans from US Army General William Shepherd to move three ICBMs to NATO allies in the Middle East through Abkhazia on 12 August. The Ultranationalists sent the private military company Konni to ambush Shadow Company in Al Mazrah, who were escorting the missiles to their destination. Konni was successful, though lost nearly half of their force due to Sergeant Eric Dipaulo's impeccable marksmanship while defending the convoy from an armored SUV. He crafted a plan with the Russian Ultranationalists occupying a great deal of the Russian military: he would use the missiles to target key locations in the United States, making it ripe for coastal invasion.
Zyani then began working with the Las Almas Cartel in Mexico to smuggle the missiles to the Americas. Guidance systems were provided by Ultranationalists and smuggled through a cartel hatchery on the Spanish coast at Cape Vilan. Two missiles were successfully sent to the Americas via Amsterdam, Netherlands, though the third shipment encountered some issues regarding smuggling routes in Al Mazrah.
Al Mazrah[]
On 28 October, Zyani was in Al Mazrah to organize the shipment of the third ballistic missile with al-Qatala. However, MARSOC marines accompanied by Task Force 141 operatives Johnny "Soap" MacTavish and Simon "Ghost" Riley. The NATO force took some losses when a helicopter was shot down, which allowed Zyani to escape as the remaining force defended the helicopter from the sizable AQ force there. They managed to find the third ballistic missile, with Shepherd ordering the missile destroyed.
US-Mexico border[]
Shortly after, Zyani was smuggled through Amsterdam to Mexico with the assistance of the Las Almas Cartel on 29 October. With the assistance of the cartel, he was to be smuggled across the Rio Grande to Texas to be stashed until Zyani could be safely moved northwards. However, Cuerpo de Fuerzas Especiales operatives Colonel Alejandro Vargas and Sergeant Major Rodolfo Parra were sent to intercept and capture Zyani.
After a pursuit through an American border town, an AQ terrorist ambushed Parra as he entered Zyani's room. Zyani taunted Parra, before ordering the cartel to destroy all the intel inside the room and burn Parra alive, before leaving to go back across the border to let the heat die back down.
Las Almas[]
On 30 October, Zyani based himself at a cartel outpost in Las Almas, Mexico. When TF141 and Vaqueros attacked the outpost in order to capture Zyani, Zyani fled as an entire battalion of rogue Mexican Army soldiers engaged the special forces operatives pursuing him. He managed to make it to a cartel plantation, though a Shadow Company AC-130 covered the special forces as they cleared the plantation and eventually capture Zyani.
The AC130 continued covering the team as they made their way to a small border town in Las Almas, only to be ambushed by AQ and eventually Mexican Army forces. The team eventually extracted by helicopter, taking Zyani to the middle of the desert. There, he was interrogated by Graves, Ghost, Soap, and Alejandro while Shepherd and Laswell watched remotely. Zyani mocked Graves as he tried interrogating him, before lashing out at Soap for speaking Ghorbrani's name, and then pointing out that detaining Zyani was illegal. They traced the data Zyani's phone to the hatchery in Spain, though were forced to let Zyani go.
Zyani was smuggled back across the border, with one missile being placed on a cartel-owned offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico aimed at New Orleans, Louisiana, while another missile was smuggled into Chicago through the Port of Chicago and placed on a cartel shell company-owned skyscraper, aimed at Washington, DC.
Chicago and death[]
After the destruction of the second missile and the resolution of infighting between Task Force 141 and Los Vaqueros against Shadow Company, 141 was deployed with MARSOC to Chicago with orders to kill Zyani and stop the missile. As Price, Soap, and Gaz cleared the building, they attempted to breach a room on the server floor, only to be thrown to the ground by a rigged explosive. Zyani ran off with the missile controls as Gaz dragged Price and Soap to safety. Gaz and Soap pursued Zyani down the elevator shaft, before Soap jumped down a hatch on top of Zyani, wrestling the controls away from Zyani and sprinting away from Zyani and two armored AQ fighters.
After Soap aborted and destroyed the missile mid-flight and killed the armored men, Zyani shot Soap multiple times in his front plate before knocking him out with the butt of the gun. He then dragged Soap to a window, blowing it out with a grenade, and preparing to throw him through it. Soap told Ghost to watch the window, however, and Ghost fired a .50 BMG round into Zyani's head, killing him.