Matthew Shepherd is forced to retire from the army and is wondering what he is going to do with the rest of his life. Not long afterwards he is met by an old colonel of his and asked if he wants to set up a covert missions group. A group able to complete missions that need to be kept secret, be denied and is extralegal. Shepherd agrees as long as he can gather his own operatives. This he does recruiting old friends and allies, people he knows he can trust. Their first job is to rescue four US airmen who were shot down on the Turkey/Iraq border and have been captured by the Iraqis
Al Humphries, a Delta Force Captain, has gone renegade. He has realised, while working for the UN in Haiti, that he could gain a lot of power if he stayed where he is and used his knowledge and skills to take over the place. When the UN pulls out he implements his plan. Trout wants the team to go to Haiti and stop Humphries, any way they can!
The Soldier of Fortune team is called in to infiltrate Cuba. A rogue agent inside Cuba has given a marine false orders to assassinate Fidel Castro. Will the team be able to stop him, and the accompanying international incident, without having to kill him themselves?
The Iranian government has got hold of the technology to print near perfect counterfeits of American currency. They have been using it to bankroll for terrorist activities around the world. Shepherd and his team are asked to go into Iran, find where it is being made and then destroy the facility and the machinery that is being used. Once more the team are used so that the American government can offer up the 'plausible deniability' excuse if they get caught.
A computer genius, Jacob Fillmore, who is working on a project for the DOD is nearly killed when a bomb under his car explodes. Trout wants the team to protect Fillmore, to act as his bodyguards whether he wants them to or not. As he has already refused to have secret service people watching over him it seems unlikely he will want anyone else either, even though he needs it with a four man mercenary team gunning for him.
A Bosnian general, and war criminal, is planning to assault the capital city. Trout wants the team to go in and find him, just find him, so that the United Nations can deal with him how they wish. To do this Shepherd, Benny Ray and CJ are dropped into the warzone to see if they can find him where intelligence last knew he was while Margo and Chance try to buy his location from a old, and not completely trustworthy, associate of Margo's.
Six Chilean Shining Path rebels attack the private residence of the French ambassador in Chile. They take a number of hostages, one of whom is the daughter of Xavier Trout. He not only wants the team to go in and rescue her, but also insists on going into the field with them.
Contaminated cocaine has been killing users in America, the latest victim is the daughter of the director of the CIA. To help out the CIA Trout arranges for the SOF team to go in and stop the cocaine at its' source. To find the base of the cocaine smuggler they need help, only one man knows how to get there and to get his assistance they need affect his release from Federal custody.
A missionary, who was in reality the CIA's top man in Southern Africa, is captured in Sierra Leone. He is help prisoner by Joseph Karenga, the sworn enemy of the legitimate government and a man who wants to know who the CIA have already infiltrated amongst his people. The SOF team have to get into Sierra Leone and find a way to make sure that Carlton doesn't tell what he knows, by any means possible.
At the end of a mission in Nicaragua, as they try to escape, the team's plane is shot down. They crash land in the jungle, and with Chance badly injured they think back to past missions while they wait for the Government forces or a rescue team to find them This is basically a clip show, there is nothing wrong with that but it seems a weird time to show it. In the UK it has been shown as episode 17 of 20 which makes sense, near the end of the series. If it was shown as episode 10 of 20 in America then it makes little sense. It shows clips of episodes that wouldn't have been seen yet.
A new super weapon, called a Direct Energy Weapon (DEW), is stolen. This weapon can fire a beam that can not only go through any armor known but can also shut down electrical and mechanical objects (Cars, planes and even watches). Shepherd has to go undercover, in Germany, as a buyer for the weapon to get it back. To make things worse he has to do so using the alias of a CIA agent (who was also undercover), who has gone missing and was supposed to be the original buyer.
A civilian airplane goes down over France with a large number of American citizens on board. It is reported as an accident but it was actually shot down by an anti-aircraft missile. The American government believes that it is the work of Libyan terrorists and want to show them that this sort action will no go unpunished. They cannot take any overt form of action though so the SOF team is brought in. The perfect people to disavow if everything goes wrong. Matt has to get the team to work out a way to get into Tripoli, find the main munitions plant there and then use lasers to guide two missiles, fired from British jets, onto the target. After CJ's brother's death in a Libyan jail, after being tortured, Matt doesn't think that he should be there and tries to persuade him not to go with them. For his safety and the rest of the teams!
A warlord ousts a legitimate government, of a small African Island nation. They travel to America and ask Shepherd to take his team in and stage a 'reverse coup' for them. Taking on a whole army, in a country where they can gain no intelligence is a big risk and would be extremely dangerous. If they manage it though the ex-government will pay them a fee of $10 million dollars, a fee that is more than enough to persuade Chance and CJ that it is worth attempting.
Chava Herrera, one of the top men in a Mexican drug cartel, is captured and imprisoned by the American government. He agrees to testify against his fellow cartel members until they kidnap his daughter. The SOF team find out where she is being held and go in to rescue her. The intel they were given by Trout turns out to be wrong and everything goes bad. They get away, but not without a cost. Shepherd is the only one of them who doesn't end up badly injured and in hospital.
While Shepherd is in hospital recovering from his wounds the rest of the team have to decide what they want to do about Chava Herrera, the man who played them for fools and led to Shepherd's injuries. Their intel shows that he has returned to Mexico and has restarted his drug operations. The team decides that they are not going to let him get away with what he did to them and make plans to go back to his base and deal with him properly this time.
A computer chip that can solve any encryption process possible is up for sale. The man selling it has hired a top assassin to hit an unknown target. The team needs to recover the chip, find out who the assassin is targeting is and watch their own backs. Trout believes that the assassin, known as Raptor, has got hold of all their files from a NSA man found murdered. Could this be because he is after one of the group or possibly even Trout himself?
Matt an Margo go missing in north Korea, near the Chinese/Russian border, after going there to escort a UN man in. the UN man is found dead and Trout asks CJ, Chance and Billy Ray to go in and bring back their friends. While Matt and Margo undergo interrogation and torture, to get them to admit they are spies, in a Korean prison the plan to force their release is being put into place.
The federal authorities capture a high ranking ex-KGB operative, as he enters America, and put him in a maximum security prison. Trout tells Matt that if he is sentenced to stay on jail then the Russians will retaliate on American spies in Russia. The mission he would like the SOF team to take is to break him out. A mission that, if it fails and they are caught, could find them being tried for treason and spending the next 25 years to life behind bars themselves.
A call comes in to Matt that leads to him getting the team up and ready for action immediately. A friend of his, an ex-DEA agent, has been kidnapped and a ransom of $3 million demanded. The team will have to use all their expertise to find out where the hostage is being kept, who has taken him and why and then effect a rescue.
Isa Totah [ Computer Operator ], Tim Difilippos [ Rashid ] A terrorist group spray serin gas on a number of migrant farm workers to show the government that they have the means, and the mind, to kill using the gas. They then threaten to do so again in an area with a larger population unless certain prisoners are released. The Soldier of Fortune team is called in to find, and stop, them.
After Trout is left a cryptic message about the death of Colonel Earl Swanson the three members of the SOF team (Matt, Marge & Benny Ray) are asked to conduct an unofficial investigation into his murder. The team then find themselves put in danger by one of Trout's former operatives, someone that they suspect may have gone rogue.
Heather Young [ Claire ], Steven McCarthy [ Motel Clerk ], Avery Glymph [ Valet ], Philip Pretten [ Warden ] Miguel Santiago, the no: 2 in a big arms dealing organization and now in prison, agrees to sell out his boss and testify against him. His boss puts a $5 million dollar bounty on his head. There are rumors that the US Marshall service may be involved in trying to kill Santiago and collect this bounty so Trout wants his team to keep Miguel alive for the trial.
In Rumansk a struggle for control of the country leads to the assassination of the defense minister and the kidnapping of his mistress. Roxanne Mitchell is more than just his mistress though; she is also an undercover CIA agent who knows Trout's identity. Matt has to lead the team into a foreign country to rescue her, or kill her.
The team's best friend in the Senate, Senator Stanford Parks, comes to Xavier and tells him that his daughter has gone missing. She was last seen in leaving a club in the company of Alex Vargas, the son of a big time drug lord in Columbia and someone known to take his ladies back home with him. He wants the team to head into Colombia, find his daughter and bring her back. Meanwhile his daughter has seen something she shouldn't have and her life is in danger.
Margo goes on a solo mission to Berlin, delivering money to an agent in exchange for a list of names that the American Government may be interested in. Her contact is found dead and she is soon in the hands of the German police, being questioned for murder. The rest of the team head straight for Berlin to help her and get her out if need be.
A trade involving prisoners, between Libya and America, is arranged to take place in Iceland. On route to Reykjavik the three Libyan prisoners manage to escape their bonds and force the plane to crash land in Maine. Trout wants the team to not only find the Libyans, in the mountains of Maine, but to do so within a couple of hours and to bring them back alive so that the trade can still go ahead.
What seems, at first, like a simple find and extract mission is hampered by two facts. The first is that the man they have to find and rescue is the nephew of Saddam Hussain and the second is that he is being held by the Iraqi's in their UN Mission in New York. Nick is also bothered about returning to New York for some reason or other, but he refuses to tell the team why.
The US Government thinks that they have finally discovered the identity of the notorious terrorist Gabriel. Matt and his team head out to Switzerland and start a surveillance operation on Johann Miller, the suspect. Their mission orders are not only to determine if he is Gabriel but also what he is up to if he is.
A couple are killed while on the way to the airport. Trout's people, who were attempting to uncover their connections with terrorists and arms dealers, were tailing them. Trout gets Margo and Matt to go undercover as the Jensons to find out more, and more importantly who hired them.
Katrina Herrera (see Déjà Vu & Apres Vu) is released from prison, her case dropped due to lack of evidence. She wants revenge on the SOF team for what they did to her and her father. The first member of the team she goes after is Benny and she kidnaps his son to draw him into a trap. Shepherd argues that they should be careful and not rush into things but Benny lets his emotions get the better of him and wants to do things himself.
Algerian terrorists are blowing up CIA facilities in France using explosives not available for many years. A trip to France brings back pieces of Margo's past as a CIA agent. Including an arms dealer lover, recently released from prison after being caught by the CIA and Margo eight years earlier. To find him, and reconnect with him, Margo has to go back undercover as his lover and a fellow arms dealer, just like she did before.
Margo and Matt visit Margo's brother, John, at a religious conference he is attending in Los Angeles. While they are there Matt spots some unusual jobs being completed by the security personnel. As he tells Margo what he has seen his fears are confirmed by the sudden announcement that the conference has been taken over by terrorists. In an unusual turn of events the leader of the terrorists demands that the American government deliver 20 million tons of wheat to the starving nations of the Third World. This gets not only the majority of the hostages on their side, for their aims if not their methods, but also a lot of the press outside. Matt doesn't trust them though and wonders what they are really after.
A mission at the Transpacific Oil Refinery in Detroit, looking for proof of their illegal activities, goes badly wrong. Benny Ray and Margo are badly injured and end up in a local hospital. Before long the FBI and the NSC are there, investigating two people they think are foreign spies trying to gain classified information on government contractors. Matt and Nick have to get their friends out of the hospital before they are discovered to be American operatives and the oil company realize that their activities are under scrutiny.
Matt, Marge, Benny and Nick plan a trip to experience some white water rafting. On the way there the car develops a fault and they have to limp there way to a nearby small town, Bent Copper, Colorado. They find a garage, with an extremely helpful attendant/mechanic, and while waiting for his diagnosis take a look around the place. Their first impressions are that something is wrong here. They are not sure what, or even why they have this feeling, but they trust their instincts and decide to investigate.
A top Chinese agent, known only as the White Dragon, breaks into a French laboratory and steals a top secret serum that can cause heart attacks and remain undetected. Fingerprints of the White Dragon lifted from the scene of the crime turn out to be that of an American, and the father of one of the team. The SOF team are sent in to recover the serum and capture the White Dragon.
After a couple of US government satellites go down over the amazon NASA send in a team of techs to investigate and find what is causing the failures. When their team has been out of contact for two weeks it is the turn of the SOF team to be called in. They are dropped in to the amazon with orders to find out what happened to the team and the satellites.
A high level mole in the Pentagon has been passing on top secret info and compromising missions. They have also managed to place enough evidence to prove that it is Trout who is the mole. Trout comes out of hiding to ask Matt if he and the team could help clear him and find the real mole. When they manage to capture a woman who could be the real mole she tells Shepherd and the rest of the team that Trout has been using them for his own agenda and not on government authorized missions. They are divided over whom they believe, could this be the end of the Special Ops Force?