Sam Fisher

Lieutenant Commander Samuel "Sam" Fisher, USN (Ret.), callsign: Panther, is a former senior field intelligence operative of the "Splinter Cell" program for Third Echelon, an ultra-secret sub-branch within the National Security Agency (NSA) that anticipated and responded to crises of information warfare ("a war that is hidden from the media and the ordinary man on the street"). His job usually involved him dismantling and sabotaging terrorist organizations in various parts of the world that have plans for global terror. Fisher is a master in the art of stealth, trained in various undercover and covert infiltration tactics. He not only specializes in night combat but in urban warfare tactics and field craft as well. He is also highly trained in Krav Maga and can speak a wide variety of foreign languages including Russian, French, German, Korean, Arabic, Chinese, Farsi (Persian), and Spanish among others.

Throughout his illustrious career, Fisher has been sent on numerous missions of uncovering and preventing mass murder, genocide, warfare, and world conflicts. From his mission of preventing a digital crisis, to his mission of stopping terrorists unleashing a chemical weapon, and his objective of preventing World War III, his life as a dangerous double agent, a wanted man on the run from Third Echelon, working as a freelance covert operative, operating as a contractor of a private security company, to now commanding an elite Spec Ops/Counter-Terrorism unit known as "Fourth Echelon", comprised of a small team of special operators and counter intelligence agents that report directly and only to the President of the United States.

Early Life
Samuel Fisher was born on April 17 and grew up in the Baltimore suburbs of Towson, Maryland. His father was a 25-year veteran case officer in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who posed as a Foreign Service officer stationed in Moscow during the Cold War. While not much is known of his early life, it is known that Sam attended a military boarding school shortly after his parents died when he was a child. After graduating from military school, he went on to attend the United States Naval Academy, where he became an expert member of the intramural karate team. In late 1977, at age 20, Sam graduated from the Naval Academy with a bachelor's degree in Political Science and was commissioned an Ensign in the United States Navy.

Intelligence Work
Upon graduating from the Navy and Marine Corps Intelligence Training Center, Fisher was stationed at Recruit Training Command Great Lakes in Illinois, where he spent nearly three years as an intelligence officer. Some time during this period, he briefly worked for the CIA under "detached duty" status. Not much is known about Fisher's career in the CIA other than he saw action during the Soviet War in Afghanistan in the 1980s. In the middle of an operation, he was forced to hide under dead bodies to avoid being killed. He also saw action in the former East Germany and in "other Soviet satellite countries leading up to the collapse of the USSR." At some point during the 1980s, Fisher was stationed at Rhein-Main Air Base in Frankfurt, Germany, where he later met and married Regan Burns (in 1984). Within a year into their marriage, Regan gave birth to their only child whom they named Sarah (born 31 May 1985). They eventually divorced after three years of marriage, and Regan went back to her maiden name. She soon died of ovarian cancer many years later (sometime in 1999). In 1989, Fisher was placed into a CIA task force and took part in a raiding operation on a bank during Operation Just Cause in the U.S. invasion of Panama when he assisted the team that went into the building searching for some of then-General Manuel Noriega's drug money (which they siezed) as well as collect information and documents regarding the dictator's money laundering activities which later culminated in Noriega's arrest by U.S. forces on criminal charges of drug trafficking and racketeering.

Military Service
At some point prior or around that time, Fisher opted to volunteer for the Navy SEAL training program. After being accepted, he began Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training at the Naval Special Warfare Center, which was followed by basic parachute training at the U.S. Army Airborne School (also known as "Jump School") in Fort Benning, Georgia, where he learned a number of skills in air insertions including high-altitude (HALO/HAHO) parachuting, fast roping and rappelling. He then moved on to SEAL Qualification Training (SQT), acquiring several skills such as long-range reconnaissance, combat diving, sharpshooting, close quarters combat (CQB), demolition and many others. Following his completion of SQT, Fisher attended SEAL Delivery Vehicle School and was then placed on board SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1 (SDVT-1), where he earned his Special Warfare Badge (or "SEAL Trident") and served as an assistant platoon commander. He received the Navy Commendation Medal for his performance with SDVT-1. While with SDVT-1, Fisher participated in several clandestine missions while operating in Grenada during Operation Urgent Fury.

Shortly after the conflict in Panama ended in 1990, Fisher spent the next few months leading up to the Gulf War "sleeping in a ditch on the road between Baghdād and Kuwait". Once the war began, Fisher was assigned to SEAL Team 3 (ST-3) where he served as a platoon commander. While with that SEAL Team, Fisher led several combat operations throughout the Persian Gulf (mainly hotspots in Iraq and Kuwait) before and during Operation Desert Storm. At some point during Desert Storm, Fisher served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68) where his team was stationed to conduct various combat missions in then-occupied Kuwait; his actions during one of those missions earned him the Silver Star for displaying exceptional heroism (according to his superiors).

In late-Feburary of 1991, between the morning and afternoon hours, Fisher led a four-man squad within SEAL Team 3 on a search-and-destroy mission in southern Iraq. Along with fellow squad members Victor "Husky" Coste, Jeff Bradley and Jon Goodin, Fisher was scouting for remnants of Iraqi troops during a routine foot patrol while advancing through a highway in al-Dīwānīyah leading to the capital of Baghdad when the team was ambushed by soldiers of Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guard. Of the four SEAL team members, two were killed; Bradley died instantly from a roadside bomb and Goodin died from small arms fire. Although Fisher survived, he was subsequently captured by the enemy. He was dragged away and taken to an abandoned school to be tortured for information regarding their mission in the region. He was rescued soon after by "Husky" who survived the attack after being knocked unconscious and left for dead thus escaping capture. "Husky" was told that Fisher was missing and presumed K.I.A., then ordered to find cover, hold position, and wait for evac. However, "Husky" defied orders and set off to rescue his squad leader. They were eventually extracted by helicopter after being saved by an airstrike conducted by two U.S. fighter jets while they were forced to defend their position against an assault by Republican Guard soldiers.

Following his exemplary service during the Gulf War, Fisher's dedication and finely tuned field skills led to him receiving numerous commendations. Soon after he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander, recruiters for the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU/SEAL Team 6), the U.S. Navy’s highly classified counter-terrorist unit within the Joint Special Operation Command (JSOC) took notice of his abilities and approached him about joining their ranks. Upon successful completion of an Assessment and Selection Course, Fisher went on to the Operator Training Course. After completing the course, Fisher was inducted into DEVGRU. While with DEVGRU, Fisher participated in several counter-terrorist operations in various hotspots such as Senegal, Colombia, Somalia, Burma (now known as Myanmar) and Bosnia. In Senegal, Fisher participated in an operation to hunt down and eliminate a French black market arms dealer who had been arming both sides of a brush war between Mali and Mauritania. Fisher's team eventually tracked down the arms dealer in Dakar where they assassinated him after weeks of searching through the jungles along the Senegal-Mali border.

In Colombia, Fisher took part in a hazardous mission in Norte de Santander to rescue then-Lt. Douglas Shetland, a Marine Recon operator on loan to the Colombian Army who was captured after his unit was ambushed by FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) guerrilla forces during the Selva Verde operation. Since a full rescue operation may not have reached Shetland in time, Fisher decided to disobey orders and went solo to keep Shetland from spilling any information to the enemy. Colonel Moore, commander of all U.S. military forces in the region, ordered him to stand down and not to leave the base, but conceded, telling Fisher, if he left the base he would be on his own. After he snuck off the base avoiding his fellow SEALs, Fisher made his way through the jungle and a guerilla-controlled village to the bunker where Shetland was being held, but was discovered, and put in a cell. After escaping from his cell, Fisher retrieved his confiscated gear and rescued Shetland.

Fisher was later given a staff assignment at Special Operations Central Command (SOCCENT) in Tampa, Florida, where he spent a year of shore duty assisting in the operational planning of SDV missions.

Upon retiring from the Navy in 1996 after seventeen distinguishing years of service, Fisher immediately sought to continue working for the CIA. Before Fisher could be re-hired by the Agency, he had to go through background checks, take the entrance exam, and go through a series of interviews and psychometric, numerical reasoning, psychological, psychoanalytical, aptitude, and polygraph tests. Upon passing the entrance and psychological examinations, Fisher was accepted as a "Career Trainee". After an orientation period, he was sent to "The Farm", the CIA's secret training facility in Camp Peary, outside Williamsburg, Virginia, for intensive operational training. There, he went through the Clandestine Service Trainee (CST) program, which trained him in so-called "operational intelligence" or "tradecraft" skills. This means Fisher was taught to become a master in the finer points of espionage - everything from recruiting foreign assets to detecting surveillance to clandestine communications methods as well as infiltration and exfiltration techniques. While at The Farm, Fisher received exceptionally high marks for physical endurance, logic, and psychological ops exercises.

Third Echelon Initiative
After training, Fisher was given official cover status (which means he became an operations officer posing as an U.S. government employee under a diplomatic post and therefore with diplomatic immunity if ever caught in an act of espionage). His cover was that of a Defense Department attaché due to his exemplary skills with intel (or intelligence) and his knowledge of politics. He was then assigned into the Special Operations Group of the CIA's Special Activities Division. As a paramilitary operations officer, Fisher's clandestine and covert duties took him to various locations around the world including North Korea, Russia, Panama and Belgrade (during the NATO bombing campaign). He was eventually assigned for a few weeks as a senior member of a security detail to a provisional joint CIA-NSA task force investigating cyber terrorism against American interest in Europe (resulting in a letter of recommendation from his superior). During the task force assignment, Fisher's exemplary work and his career profile caught the attention of an NSA deputy director by the name of Colonel Irving Lambert, USA (Ret.), who contacted Fisher and made him an offer of employment with the NSA. After accepting the offer, Fisher was subsequently put through a thorough medical and psychological exam, a polygraph interview and an extensive background investigation. Upon successfully completing the entire application process, Fisher was selected to serve in a newly-established top-secret directorate within the NSA tasked with protecting critical U.S. information systems by spearheading the American information warfare initiative.

Dubbed "Third Echelon", this sub-agency was formed in 2003 in response to the growing use of sophisticated digital encryption to conceal potential threats to the national security of the United States. For decades the NSA has engaged in the passive collection of moving data by intercepting communications en route. But as communications become more digital and sophisticated encryption more expansive, passive collection is simply no longer sufficient. So hoping to bridge the chasm between simply gathering actionable intelligence and acting on that intelligence, the NSA formed Third Echelon as its own in-house covert operations unit.

Commanded by Colonel Lambert, Third Echelon marks a return to "classical" methods of espionage, enhanced with leading-edge surveillance and combat technology for the aggressive collection of stored data in hostile territories. Instead of filtering the world through satellites and antennas, Third Echelon field operatives, designated as "Splinter Cells", physically infiltrate dangerous and sensitive enemy locations to gather the required intelligence by whatever means necessary. Their prime directive, in a nutshell, is to do their jobs while remaining invisible to the public eye. In other words, they go back to the nitty-gritty world of human spies out there in the field, risking their lives for the sake of taking a photograph or recording a conversation or copying a computer hard drive. They’re authorized to work outside the boundaries of international treaties, but the U.S. government will neither acknowledge nor support their operations.

("The original Splinter Cell")
Colonel Lambert believed Fisher would be the perfect candidate for an experimental training program within Third Echelon called the "Splinter Cell Program" due to his impressive abilities, skills and combat experience. Although only told that he would be tasked with handling covert missions either too sensitive or too risky for traditional entities such as the CIA or standard Special Operations Forces, Fisher exuberantly accepted the position of being the first recruit of the program. Afterwards, he was then told the details of Third Echelon and his training began. To prepare him for such work, Fisher was sent to "The Farm" for a period of over several weeks undergoing an indoctrination screening process in which he was evaluated and tested to see if he possessed the skill and ability to undertake dangerous and covert solo missions for the organization while acting in total discretion.

While at The Farm, Fisher went through Covert Ops training, which taught him how to be a ghost, capable of moving through areas completely undetected, by not only to the average eyes, but electronic eyes as well. He also underwent advanced, extensive training for hand-to-hand combat, torture and interrogation resistance, explosives handling and defusal, moderate computer hacking (cryptography), covert intelligence gathering (special recon), advanced stealth tactics (concealment, infiltration techniques, exfiltration, silent movement, and silent combat on a solo operating scale), urban warfare, surveillance, to escape and evasion (E&E) methods, among many other useful skills vital to his survival in the field. Not to mention highly advanced all-around combat training. He was trained by Colonel Lambert himself (while being observed by Anna "Grim" Grímsdottír, at the time Third Echelon's chief analyst). Because of his military experience, Fisher excelled in his training, receiving tremendous high marks for physical stamina, marksmanship, and concealment during exercises.

After completing the screening process, Fisher was inducted into the "Splinter Cell" program and informed of Third Echelon's mandate. He was told that as an elite "Splinter Cell", a remote team would be supporting him. He would be used in situations where more than one operative - even though highly secret - would arouse too much attention. His job would be to infiltrate secure installations, seize critical intelligence, destroy dangerous data or equipment, and neutralize the enemy as needed, without leaving a trace. The doctrine of Third Echelon is that although killing may compromise secrecy, "the choice between leaving either a witness or a corpse is no choice at all." This unconventional status would allow him to disregard any law, agreement, or framework of ethical behavior in order to accomplish a mission (i.e. "Fifth Freedom"). As Colonel Lambert told Fisher "all means are acceptable." For example, he may kill in combat or by assassination, may torture or kidnap people, may deploy on U.S. soil, and may even spy on other U.S. government agencies. However, if he were to ever be captured or killed, the U.S. government would disavow him, either by claiming that he has gone rogue or by denying that he was affiliated with U.S. intelligence at all.

Georgian Information Crisis (2004)

For his first assignment as the first official Splinter Cell, Fisher was dispatched to the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. On 7th October 2004, the CIA had lost contact with Alice Madison, a CIA operations officer who was monitoring widespread communication shortages plaguing Georgia. A second officer, William Robert Blaustein, was inserted into the Georgian capital of Tbilisi to locate Madison, only to drop from contact four days later.

Fearing for the lives of American agents compromised at the hands of a suspected terrorist effort, Third Echelon activated Fisher and inserted him into T’bilisi on 16th October. He was ordered to locate the two missing agents and evaluate the situation. During his investigation, Fisher discovered that Blaustein and Madison were killed for getting too close to information Georgian president Kombayn Nikoladze needed to protect. Nikoladze had been waging a campaign of systematic ethnic cleansing and mass murder against the neighboring Muslim population of Azerbaijan in an attempt to seize that country’s vast oil resources.

NATO intervened in the situation and pushed most of the Georgian commandos from Azerbaijan, with only a few well-hidden cells remaining. One of those cells, entrenched in an oilrig on the Caspian Sea, was exchanging data with the presidential palace in Georgia via a secure network. Hours after a successful U.S. attack on the oilrig, Nikoladze went underground and retaliated by initiating an information crisis in the U.S., using advanced computer algorithms developed by Canadian computer hacker Phillip Masse to wreak havoc upon America’s electronic infrastructure. Fisher was dispatched to hunt down Nikoladze and stop the crisis.

After a couple of difficult missions in which Fisher infiltrated CIA headquarters in Langley and the Nadezhda Nuclear Power Plant in northern Russia, Third Echelon's technical director Anna Grímsdóttir and a team of analysts were eventually able to trace communications (via a microwave relay) between Nikoladze and the Chinese Embassy in Yangon, the capital of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). Fisher discovered that Nikoladze was working with rogue Chinese general Kong Feirong to develop nuclear weapons.

In a desperate act of defiance against the U.S., Nikoladze arranged the immediate, live webcast executions of the captured U.S. soldiers. Fisher, however, was able to rescue the captives in time. Following the rescue, Nikoladze returned to the Georgian Presidential Palace in order to retrieve a nuclear suitcase bomb codenamed the "ARK", which was later placed on American soil. Infiltrating the Georgian Presidential Palace, Fisher assassinated Nikoladze, ending the information crisis and stopping Georgia from detonating the ARK.

As Nikoladze had been neutralized, Phillip Masse was still on the loose. Seeing as how he could still be a threat to the free world through digital means, Fisher was sent to the Kola Peninsula in northern Russia to eliminate him. After killing Masse outside a factory not far from Severmorsk, Fisher was ordered to go to a nearby submarine port somewhere on the coasts of the Kola Peninsula to prevent a threat of a loose nuclear weapon from being retrieved from the Vselka, a Typhoon-Class nuclear submarine. His mission was to stop Colonel Alekseevich’s remaining troops from taking control of the Vselka. In his efforts, Fisher was able to raise the sub to the surface in order to board the vessel and disable Alekseevich’s soldiers from using it. To prevent a threat from loosing a nuclear weapon, Fisher discovered that they were unable to retrieve the nuclear weapon and were spared by him. Fisher escaped the submarine via a torpedo launch tube.

Indonesian Crisis/LAX Incident (2006)

In 2006, nearly two years after the crisis, the U.S. established a military presence in the nation of East Timor to train that country’s military forces in their fight against anti-separatist Indonesian guerrilla militias. Foremost among those Indonesian militias was the Darah Dan Doa (Blood and Prayer), led by Suhadi Sadono. A Charismatic militia leader, Sadono once trained by the CIA to help fight Communist influences in the region, had grown resentful of the U.S. support of East Timor. Sadono initiated a suicide bombing and follow up attack on the U.S. Embassy to Dili, capturing a number of U.S. military and diplomatic personnel including Fisher's old friend and comrade Douglas Shetland, now CEO of the private military company Displace International. Shetland and Fisher had fought side-by-side on a number of joint operations during the Gulf War.

On 28th March, Fisher was sent to infiltrate the embassy and gather intelligence on the Darah Dan Doa. He succeeded in his mission, and Delta Force retook the U.S. Embassy. However, Sadono escaped and the U.S. launched a military campaign on Indonesian soil in an attempt to hunt him down, much to the protests of the Indonesian government.

After following trails which led to a Cryogenics Lab in Saulnier, Paris, on a train heading for Nice, in the streets of Jerusalem, and infiltrating the jungles of Jakarta, Fisher ultimately learned that Sadono had masterminded a scheme known as "Pandora Tomorrow", by placing a series of biological bombs (ND133s) equipped with weaponized hantavirus on American soil. Every 24 hours, Sadono made encrypted phone calls to each of the bomb carriers to delay the release of the virus. If he was killed or detained, the virus would be released and millions of Americans would die. Because Sadono was fighting on the front lines in the conflict, the U.S. couldn’t risk killing him, and was forced to withdraw its forces.

Fisher was sent to infiltrate Darah Dan Doa strongholds in order to learn the location of the Hantavirus bombs. Shetland and Displace International assisted him in this endeavor. Fisher ultimately learned the location of the bombs, and other Third Echelon field operatives (then SHADOWNET operatives) were sent in to neutralize them, bringing an end to Sadono’s threat against the United States.

Third Echelon decided to capture Sadono alive instead of merely assassinating him, due to the problems created when Fisher assassinated President Nikoladze during the Georgian Information Crisis.

Although Fisher managed to capture Sadono, Third Echelon learned that a rogue CIA officer, Norman Soth had acquired the last hantavirus-armed ND133, and intended to detonate it at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Soth had participated in Operation Redbeard, establishing U.S.-friendly guerrilla cells in Indonesia to fight Communism. One of these cells was Sadono's group, the Darah Dan Doa. However, the U.S. government pulled support of Operation Redbeard and ended up supporting the Timorese, leaving Soth on his own. Soth eventually went underground and aligned himself with Sadono and the DDD, becoming Sadono’s chief bodyguard. However, Soth had no interest in Sadono’s cause, and merely wanted to strike back at the U.S. federal government for betraying him years earlier.

Fisher infiltrated LAX, killed Soth and his group of terrorists (disguised as airport workers and security guards), and prevented the detonation of the last hantavirus-armed ND133, which was disabled by the LAPD bomb squad before it was deployed.

NSA Mole and Stolen Weapons Cache In August 2006, four months after the incident at LAX, Fisher was sent on a mission to discover the NSA mole, and anyone who was behind the plot to steal an NSA weapon cache to sell to foreign terrorists. He infiltrated a steel factory in Warsaw, Indiana, eavesdropped on Ernest (then knocked him out), and captured Agent Frasier for later interrogation. He successfully located the weapon cache.

Information Warfare Attacks/East Asian Crisis (2007)

In 2007, a year after that incident, Fisher was dispatched to a lighthouse outside Talara, Peru, on 24th June, to locate Bruce Morgenholt, a missing computer programmer who worked on deciphering Phillip Masse’s algorithms, which were designed for information warfare attacks. Morgenholt had been captured by a Peruvian separatist group called "The People’s Voice", led by Hugo Lacerda. Masse, whom Fisher assassinated in the winter of 2004, was a genius far ahead of his time, and the United Nations (UN) had extensively studied the algorithms he used to launch his attacks on the United States. The resulting "Masse Kernels" were being touted as the superweapon of the 21st century. Fisher was tasked with making sure they did not fall into the wrong hands.

During this time, tensions were running high between China, North Korea, and Japan, following Japan’s formation of an Information Self Defense Force (I-SDF). Considering this to be a violation of the Post-World War II Constitution, Chinese and North Korean forces established a blockade in the Yellow Sea against Japanese shipping. Because Japan and the I-SDF are allies of the United States, the USS Clarence E. Walsh, the U.S. Navy's most advanced warship, commanded by Captain Arthur Partridge, Fisher's old friend and former commanding officer, was dispatched to the Sea of Japan. The U.S. hoped this show of strength would get China and North Korea to back down.

Meanwhile, Fisher arrived too late to prevent Morgenholt’s death. He was also unsuccessful in stopping the release of the Masse Kernels. Fisher was told to go onboard the Maria Narcissa, a cargo ship in the Pacific Ocean 90km southwest off the Panama Canal, to kill Hugo Lacerda and track the weapon deliveries so Third Echelon could find out whom they were dealing with. After completing the mission, unknown parties used the algorithms to black out Japan and the Eastern Seaboard, including New York City. Japan had previously suffered similar attacks that crashed its economy, and Admiral Toshiro Otomo of the I-SDF contacted the U.S. government and warned them that North Korea and China were probably responsible. Meanwhile, following a lead discovered in the MCAS bank in Panama (the same bank Fisher raided in '89), Fisher traveled to New York to investigate Abrahim Zherkezhi, a man who worked with Morgenholt. He found out that Displace International was protecting him. He broke into the Displace International offices and learned of one Milan Nédich, later identified as "Milos Nowak", a Bosnian war criminal. Fisher found that Nowak/Nédich secretly relocated Zherkezhi to Hokkaido.

Fisher traveled to Hokkaido and met with Shetland, who claimed that Nédich was clean. Regardless, Fisher infiltrated the hideout that Zherkezhi was being held in. There, Fisher killed Nédich, and witnessed Shetland murdering Zherkezhi. Shetland escaped and went underground.

Meanwhile, the U.S. show of force backfired when a North Korean "Super Silkworm" anti-ship missile sank the USS Walsh on 4th July, initiating a war between North Korea and South Korea/United States. Since North Korea claimed the missile was launched unintentionally, Fisher was sent to the Korean peninsula (including the South Korean capital city of Seoul), to determine if North Korea was truly responsible for sinking the Walsh, or if the Masse Kernels were involved.

Fisher eventually learned that Displace International had orchestrated the entire war. They used the Masse Kernels gained from Zherkezhi to hijack North Korea’s missile systems, and sink the Walsh, in order to draw the U.S. into a war from which the company could profit through its status as a leading American defense contractor. Fisher also realized the mastermind behind the entire plot was none other than Douglas Shetland. Ultimately, Third Echelon sent him to Tokyo, Japan, to spy on a meeting between Shetland and Shetland’s unknown accomplices, who shockingly turned out to be Admiral Toshiro Otomo of the I-SDF. At the meeting, Shetland betrayed the I-SDF, and a firefight subsequently broke out between Shetland’s soldiers and I-SDF assault troops. Amidst the chaos, Fisher pursued Shetland to the roof, where, after a tense standoff, Fisher killed Shetland.

Even after Shetland’s death, one loose end remained. Admiral Otomo had acquired a copy of the Masse Kernels from Shetland, and attempted to return Japan to Imperial rule by blackmailing the Japanese government officials and senior JSDF officers. He threatened to use the algorithms to launch a North Korean missile against a Japanese city. Because North Korea would be supported by China, and the U.S. would back Japan, the incident would spark World War III. Although Otomo's I-SDF black-ops forces managed to fight off G-SDF commandos sent to stop him, Fisher infiltrated the I-SDF’s secret underwater base in Tokyo Bay and managed to put an end to Otomo’s plans. Otomo attempted to commit seppuku (suicide), but Fisher saved his life and captured him. Otomo stood trial at the UN and took full responsibility for the entire Korean crisis, returning stability to the Far East.

After his actions in ending that crisis, Fisher was promoted to the position of a "senior field operations officer". His exemplary work has made him Third Echelon's premier operative.

JBA Operation/Red Mercury Plot (2008)

In September 2007, shortly after those events, Third Echelon sends Fisher and John Hodge, a "Splinter Cell-in-training", to Iceland to investigate suspicious activities at a geothermal plant 20km from Akureyri. There, they discover Islamic terrorists prepping a nuclear missile for launch. Fisher was able to stop the launching of the missile, but unfortunately Agent Hodge was killed after he disobeyed an order to stay hidden. During the mission, Fisher learned that a drunk driver had killed his daughter, Sarah. Overcome with grief, he was unable to concentrate on the operation and was pulled out by Colonel Lambert.

After many months, Fisher, devastated and depressed, begs for another mission to distract himself from his grief. Lambert reluctantly agreed and offered him a mission as an NOC (Non-Official Cover) agent (comprised of CIA and NSA agents who infiltrate criminal organizations, and are used for HUMINT (HUMan INTelligence) purposes. As with similar organizations, the U.S. government denies any involvement in their activities). A scheme set by the NSA to explore the motivations of a domestic terrorist group known as John Brown’s Army (JBA), Fisher became a notorious criminal by staging many bank robberies and mock killing sprees -. He finally surrendered after a three-day hostage crisis and was sent to Ellsworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas where he was placed into the same cell as JBA member Jamie Washington, and with his cooperation, they break out of prison. Once the two escaped, Jamie offered Fisher an invitation into the JBA.

At their compound in New York, Emile Dufraisne, the leader of the JBA, gave Fisher the order to shoot Cole Yeagher, the pilot of the helicopter they used to escape the prison. Fisher reluctantly complied and killed him, thus proving his loyalty to the JBA. He was then sent on a mission to take over a Russian oil tanker in the Sea of Okhotsk 200km off the Siberian Coast so that JBA ally Massoud Ibn-Yussif could use it to deliver one of the bombs. There, Sam murdered the entire crew of the tanker and took it over.

After that, Fisher was sent with Dufraisne and Carson Moss, Dufraisne’s head of security, to the Jin Mao Hotel in Shanghai, China, where Dufraisne was meeting with a Pakistani nuclear scientist, Dr. Abdul-Ahmad Aswat. CIA agent Hisham Hamza ordered him to record a meeting between Emile and Dr. Aswat. During the meeting, Aswat sells Emile several kilograms of a nuclear material called "Red Mercury". With Third Echelon on high alert, Fisher was told to collect a sample from the safe in the meeting room. While in the process, he was contacted by Moss, who ordered him via radio to steal notes from Aswat’s hotel room. Fisher was then ordered to assassinate Dr. Aswat (because he was a "liability") in which he complied to keep his cover.

With both the Red Mercury and Dr. Aswat’s notes, the JBA constructed a bomb that they wish to test. Fisher was given the task to plant the bomb and arm it on a cruise ship off the coast of Cozumel, Mexico. He informed Lambert about the bomb and he allowed Fisher to remotely disarm the bomb. But he let the bomb go off to further his cover with the JBA. He did that to ensure that a terrorist and his partner in the JBA, Enrica Villablanca’s life was spared. Had the bomb not gone off, either Enrica or he would have been at the mercy of Emile and his mercy isn’t much. The cruise ship exploded killing approximately 2,156 passengers and crewmen onboard.

Fisher’s trust was almost at its highest when Emile took him to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo where they would meet with Alejandro Takfir and Massoud Ibn-Yussif, allies of the JBA. Fisher was able to bug the meeting and found out that all three terrorists each had Red Mercury bombs like the one he planted on the cruise ship. They planned to destroy Mexico City, Los Angeles and New York City. During that meeting something happened and Agent Hamza’s cover was blown.

Fisher was given the order to assassinate Hamza, who had fled to the Congolese presidential palace in Kinshasa. He made his way through the streets, which was an all-out war zone between the rebels and government forces. He took up a position with a sniper rifle from the top of a radio tower adjacent to the palace. There, he decided against killing Agent Hamza and killed the Congolese rebels that had him hostage. Fisher safely extracted Hamza from the palace and covered his tracks by making it seem like Hamza was killed in the explosion of the palace.

When Fisher returned to New York it was showtime for Emile and his detonation of the Red Mercury bomb he had. He knew he couldn’t let the bomb go off and that would mean he would lose his cover that night. But Fisher wanted to keep it for as long as he could but that was challenged when Lambert was captured by the JBA for sneaking around the complex and Emile gave him the order of killing him. Fisher reluctantly complied and shot Lambert, who later dies due to loss of blood sustained from his gunshot wound.

Soon after, Fisher’s cover was blown. All the members of the JBA were after him and he had to defuse the bomb. With the help of Enrica, who discovered his NOC status and gave him his equipment, he entered the labs below the headquarters, found the bomb and defused it. Fisher killed nearly all the JBA members including Dufraisne, whom he killed after a brutal fight when Emile resisted surrender. But before he was killed, Dufraisne told Fisher about one more Red Mercury bomb Moss had. When SWAT came in he resisted arrest, incapacitated a SWAT officer, stole the man's uniform, and escaped to go find Moss. The NYPD pursued Fisher through New York, but he boarded a stolen Coast Guard boat that Moss was using to deliver the last bomb. After a brutal fight, Fisher killed Moss, disarmed the bomb, and escaped the boat seconds before it was destroyed. He then goes into hiding after being publicly labeled as the "wanted murderer" of then-Third Echelon Director Irving Lambert.

 The Fisher Investigation (2009) 

After the JBA Crisis, Fisher became a fugitive and had to sneak into the graveyard to visit his daughter's grave. Fisher was arrested, taken into custody and interrogated. During this time, Fisher recalled past events and missions. Many of the events showcased Fisher's past, such as a solo rescue to save his commander while he was Navy SEAL. Other events showcased his time as a Splinter Cell agent, such as the infiltration of an oil rig during the Georgian Information Crisis.

Fisher eventually admitted that he had killed his handler, Colonel Lambert. However, Fisher stole the evidence and escaped in the end.

The D.C. EMP Event /Third Echelon Conspiracy (2011)
Three years after going undercover during the JBA Crisis, Fisher (who had been discharged from 3E) came out of hiding to began looking into the death of his daughter, Sarah. During his investigation, he found some suspects in Malta who may have been involved. While in Malta, Fisher was informed by Grim, at this time his former 3E colleague, that a group of people are attempting to kill him in Valetta. After interrogating their leader, he learned that Andri Kobin was responsible for the death of his daughter. Third Echelon agents dropped in and took Fisher to Price Airfield in Virginia.

Fisher, with Grim's assistance, was able to escape Price Airfield and went to the Washington Monument to meet his old SEAL comrade Victor Coste, who was the one who rescued Fisher from torture after being captured in an ambush during the Gulf War. At the Washington Monument, Fisher received EMP devices from Coste and details about the PMC working with Third Echelon. Fisher headed off to White Box, which Black Arrow, the PMC with Third Echelon, was using to get EMP technology.

After leaving White Box, Fisher headed to the Lincoln Memorial to get an audio recording of a discussion between Tom Reed, the then-new Director of Third Echelon, and Lucius Galliard, the CEO of Black Arrow. Fisher learned about a group called "Megiddo" from an interrogation of Galliard and goes to Third Echelon HQ to recover equipment and data from Tom Reed's computers.

At Third Echelon, Fisher found Kobin again in Reed's office (which is/was the 3E Director's office) and interrogated him again for more information about the EMP bombs and his daughter, who Fisher found out to be alive at White Box. Kobin directed Fisher to Grim's office, to which Grim agreed that what he would find out was for the best. Fisher was enraged to find out that his best friend and 3E's late director had been lying to him about Sarah's death.

Fisher headed to the Michigan Avenue Reservoir, where the EMP bomb that was going to hit Sarah's apartment was located. After taking out the bomb, with assistance from Victor Coste, Fisher headed to the White House. Grim devised a plan to get him near Reed: She shot Fisher in the shoulder and stripped him of his equipment.

Once the Third Echelon agents had been dispatched by both Grim and Fisher, he brutally interrogated Reed, learning that Reed was the mole inside 3E during the JBA op and the reason that Lambert had needed to fake Sarah's death. Shortly afterwards, Sam spared Reed, thus leading Grim to execute Reed from point-blank range.

Sam later raided an interrogation facility ran by Black Arrow, who were questioning Coste and forcing him to recall the time between the last moments of Sam's deep cover op in New York and the events involving Third Echelon conspiracy and the EMP incident in nation's capital. According to an unknown source, Sam successfully rescued his old friend and "brother", as Coste told his interrogators about how Sam referred to as being his "family".

Paladin Nine Security
While in semi-retirement but bored with civilian life, Fisher was approached by Coste who recruited him into his PMC, Paladin Nine Security, much to his daughter Sarah's dismay. He and Coste then only took contracts which they believed in. During the first Blacklist attack at the U.S. Airbase in Guam, Sam witnessed Coste being critically wounded after he protected him from a grenade released by a dead member (disguised as a U.S. soldier) of a then-unknown group that perpetrated the attack.

Return To Government Work
Fourth Echelon and the Blacklist (2011-12)

Six months sometime after the events in D.C., Fisher worked in Paladin Nine Security with Victor Coste and Charlie Cole until an attack on a U.S. military base in Guam leaves Victor wounded by a fragmentation grenade. Sam is later appointed by President Caldwell as the acting commander of a special operations and counter-terrorism unit called Fourth Echelon, with Grímsdóttir as the unit's technical operations officer, Briggs as a new operative and Charlie serving as the tech specialist at Sam's request. The unit was mandated to prevent a series of escalating terrorist attacks against U.S. interests known as "the Blacklist".

Fourth Echelon sent Sam into Benghazi, Libya to pick up a man who had walked into the CIA safehouse: Andriy Kobin. Sam goes to Libya to extract Kobin, as he has information about the attack on Guam. Fisher frees and interrogates him, then imprisons him on the Paladin. Following the buyers for Kobin's weapon, 4E goes to a terrorist training camp in Mirawa, eastern Iraq. Fisher infiltrates and discovers that the agent is Jadid, an ex-MI6 agent. Fisher then discovers a kill room with a soldier's corpse, and a message from a man they identify as Majid Sadiq, the leader of the Engineers.

The second Blacklist attack is set in Chicago, IL. The Engineers were trying to poison the city's water supply with weaponized syphilis, which Fisher managed to stop. Tracking down leads, Fisher goes to Paraguay to find Nouri, a source of Engineer soldiers. He breaks into his safe room and then extracts him under fire from a hit squad. Instead of imprisoning him, he turns him loose as an asset. Following intelligence gained from Nouri, Fisher goes to London to uncover what a sleeper cell is doing. Briggs provides sniper fire wihle Fisher infiltrates the mill. He sneaks into where they are deploying cargo, and plants a tracker on the cargo: a variant of VX nerve gas. He gets infected, but continues the mission. He is briefly captured by Sadiq, who is on-site, but Briggs rescues him and disobeys Sam's order to pursue Sadiq to save his life. Briggs is then taken off active duty.

Intelligence gathered in London points to Iran as the force behind the Blacklist. Facing a possible war against the country of Iran, Fourth Echelon decides to visit the reconverted American embassy in Tehran (now Quds Force HQ) to uncover the truth. Fisher then escapes the embassy with data on the truth and Briggs picks him up in a van, being subsequently returned to active duty. They are pursued, and Grim decides to use the drone to free a path. They escape, and President Caldwell says that there was a "drone malfunction." The mission gives proof that Iran is not behind the attacks.

The third Blacklist attack targets Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Engineers have held hostages on a metro train and also plan to bomb outside the subway terminals into the city streets, where Sam and Briggs cooperate and take out the Engineer driver with their snipers. Fourth Echelon is held up in thwarting the fourth Blacklist attack, American Fuel, by a virus implanted in the Paladin. With the combined efforts of Kobin and Fisher, the plane is kept from crashing at the last moment, but the attack goes through, and the continuity of government protocol is issued.

The American Fuel attack was against a Liquid Natural Gas Facility in Sabine Pass, Louisiana. The Engineers introduced a virus into its fire suppression systems, then rammed a tanker truck into the facility. Fourth Echelon deployed Fisher into the facility to activate a terminal so Charlie could reactivate the defenses. From intel acquired on the ground from Navy SEALs, Fisher then chased after the High-Value on-site Engineer, interrogating him until he managed to get the fact that Sadiq was going to attack Site F directly. Sadiq raids the bunker of Site F, taking all the high goverment officals hostage. Sam surprises him and they engage in close combat. Sam manages to defeat him, but Sadiq claims that he'd already won, threatening Sam that if he kills him, all twelve nations that stand behind him will rise up in his defense. If he puts Sadiq on trial, he will spill every secret he knows about special operations, including Fourth Echelon. Leaving him with no choice, Sam employs the Fifth Freedom and unofficially imprisons him. Majid Sadiq was announced dead by President Caldwell, who relays it to the country without revealing the existence of Fourth Echelon or anyone's name on it. Sam than reunites with Victor Coste, who had recovered from his injuries and was in the process of interrogating an imprisoned Sadiq, seemingly in Guantanamo Bay.

Note

 * This character is the protagonist of the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell video game franchise.