The game begins with an attack on Greentown by the Tan Army and Sarge battling through the war-torn city to save it. After the battle, Sarge is informed by Colonel Grimm that General Plastro and the Tan Army has surrendered and that there will be a peace ceremony later that night, but that a rogue Tan division - Operation "Vengeance" - led by Lord Malice has stolen some infantry molds and can now build an army. Sarge's mission is to find and capture Malice, recover the stolen molds, and locate a missing recon squad that hadn't returned from their mission.[2]
Sarge arrives in the area (a beach) and battles his way to the Tan portal. There, he discovers plans indicating that Malice is planning to detonate a bomb at the peace ceremony. Malice contacts Sarge on his radio, revealing the bomb is hidden in the peace statue. Sarge charges through the portal to stop the ceremony, but he is too late - as the bomb goes off, Greentown is destroyed and Plastro, Colonel Grimm, the Heroes, Vikki and the Green and Tan armies are all killed in the explosion. Enraged at the death of his squad, Sarge then sets out to kill Malice and avenge the Heroes.
He battles his way through the remains of Greentown to another Tan portal. Upon proceeding through the portal, he finds himself in Malice's artillery base. Sarge destroys all the artillery and discovers a plastic well mine that Malice is using to build his army. Sarge floods the mine, rendering it useless. He then travels across the desert to Malice's castle. Malice is using the castle as a communication center for his air and ground forces, as well as a prison base for some of the Green army's finest men. Sarge penetrates the castle's defenses, frees the prisoners and destroys the communications tower. Discovering a passage from the castle to a kitchen in the Real World, Sarge flashes back to a time when he was in a similar kitchen, in a squad led by Major Gooding. During an exfiltration mission, Gooding and his squad were ambushed by Tan forces. During the ambush, Sarge called in an air strike and found Gooding's arm near the sink, leading him to the conclusion that Gooding was dead (unknown to Sarge, Gooding was in the sink, trying to call for help). As Sarge takes off in the helicopter, the flashback ends, and Sarge moves forth.
