Zombies (Treyarch)/Story/Dark Aether Saga

The Dark Aether Saga is a story introduced in the Zombies mode of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and featured in Call of Duty: Vanguard, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. It is a follow up to the Aether Story.
The Dark Aether Saga Timeline can be used to view exactly when the events occurred. Please note that the story is ever-changing based on information introduced in each new map.
==Distant Past==
===Life in the Dark Aether===
For eons, clans of powerful beings, known as Elder Gods or Old Ones, have been forging alliances and fighting battles with one another in a constant struggle for power in the Dark Aether. One of the most powerful of these beings was Kortifex the Deathless who, as a member of his clan's royal bloodline, murdered his parents to rule over his clan. Kortifex took Saraxis, another member of the royal bloodline, as his consort.
One day, Kortifex petitioned the Construct, a living monolith of immense power. No one in the Dark Aether knew where the Construct came from, but it was believed to be ancient, even by the standards of the Elder Gods, often being described as "old as time itself". Although the first denizens of the Dark Aether worshipped it, the Construct appeared to be indifferent to their lives and struggles. However, on a few occasions, the Construct would give a small fraction of its powers to an individual it deemed worthy to become its champion, an Archon.
Even though Kortifex completed the three trials that were set up for him: the Trial of Sacrifice, the Trial of Mindfulness, and the Trial of Resilience; the Construct rejected his petition. Enraged, Kortifex became obsessed with becoming the new Archon and prevented anyone from petitioning the Construct by sending the Sisters of Agony, his personal assassins, against any individual who would try.
For a time, Kortifex deeply cared about Saraxis; until she bore him an heir and tried to hide it. Worried that his child would one day turn against him like he did with his parents, Kortifex cruelly got rid of the child. As punishment, Kortifex maimed Saraxis burying her face beneath a mask and wiping out her memory. Now called "the Shadow", as she had become a shadow of her former self, Saraxis became one of the Sisters of Agony.
===First contact with Humanity===
Following the banishment of the Multiverse, some Elder Gods became aware of the existence of life outside of the Dark Aether with many items now appearing throughout the realms including a mysterious weapon box and a Pack-a-Punch device. Many of them began taking interest with Earth and its inhabitants, including Kortifex who ordered Norticus the Conqueror, the Supreme Commander of Kortifex's Night Legions, to study the planet for conquest. However, they could only see glimpses of the other side through the newly formed dimensional veil often appearing to humans in campfires, crystal balls, or pools of water.
The possibility to cross over became possible thanks to Saraxis who, having studied humanity since even before the rise of and , helped Bellekar the Warlock into creating an anchor that formed a transdimensional link between the two realities, allowing her to make a symbiotic bond with a human host. These anchors became known as Artifacts.
The other Elder Gods began creating artifacts of their own, each reflecting the culture they were the most familiar with. Kortifex often visited the , who believed he was , and his artifact took the form of a stick with a pyramid on each end; Kortifex later bonded with a cruel pharaoh who saw himself as a god. Norticus was revered by the as , the Father of the and his artifact took the form of a horn. Inviktor the Destroyer, a veteran soldier of the Night Legion, appreciated who believed he was the god of war , and his artifact took the form of a sword. At some point, Inviktor bonded with a man named who accomplished many feats and became a legend leading Inviktor to also be erroneously remembered as Achilles. Bellekar was always fascinated and curious about humanity, especially the , and her artifact took the form of a mask. Saraxis, on the other hand, always saw humans as "playthings", bonding with anyone she could for centuries in Japan where she was believed to be a . Her artifact took the form of a three-headed dragon.
===The Netherwars===
To increase his dominion as Lord of the Dark Aether, Kortifex and his Night Legions waged the Netherwars against rival clans. However, some in Kortifex's circle began working against him including Bellekar, who chronicled the campaigns of the Netherwars, and Saraxis who fled from the Sisters of Agony forcing Kortifex to replace her with Zaballa the Deceiver.
During one campaign, the Night Legions battled in the Wilds of the Dark Aether ravaging the land where a hermit clan dwelled. The clan had control over Life-Energy by communing with the Web of Life that spread throughout the Wilds connecting each member with one another. With their land turning into a wasteland, thus diminishing the Web of Life, the clan pleaded Kortifex to spare the Wilds. Aghast by the request, Kortifex burnt the clan's Sacred Forest and, unaware of the clan's power, launched his armies and the Sisters of Agony to hunt down every member of the clan. With each death, the hermit clan's energy and power were passed down to another until only one member remained, Vercanna the Last. With the accumulated power of her now extinct clan, Vercanna was said to have become invincible.
Not long after, as Kortifex continued to expand his territory, Bellekar met with Vercanna in front of Vercanna's birth stone, in what was now the Corrupted Lands of the Dark Aether, to form a plot against Kortifex.
The other clans began to organize and repel the Night Legions. It was the first defeat suffered by Kortifex's armies for as long as people remembered. Enraged, Kortifex singled out one of the commanders, known as the Decimator, merging him into his own shield for eternity before throwing it away in what remained of the Wilds to be forgotten.
However, the noose continued to tighten around Kortifex as his armies were suffering defeat after defeat. After the Battle of Obsidian Ridge, Inviktor defected to the Resistance. Realizing victory could not be achieved, as well as harboring feelings of guilt and remorse, Norticus also joined the rebellious clans and helped topple Kortifex's throne. As a punishment, Kortifex was physically trapped into his Scepter before being cast out on Earth. Kortifex swore vengeance on the treacherous Elder Gods.
===Influence over Earth===
Over time, Saraxis, Bellekar, Norticus, and Inviktor also became trapped in their own artifact-turned-prison, separated from the rest of the Dark Aether. This did not stop the Elder Gods from interacting or having influence over Earth.
Saraxis continued to visit Japan and bond with many people until she bonded with a feudal lord on the island of during the 18th century. Unbeknownst to her, Kortifex secretly contacted the keepers of a small shrine dedicated to her and convinced them that she was a threat to their lord. He forged a Relic Mirror and taught them how to separate Saraxis from her host. When she returned to the shrine, Saraxis was ambushed by the priests who used the mirror to force her back into her artifact before it was discarded.
In , the Société Occulte was formed by several individuals who often came in contact with the Elder Gods - including Kortifex and Norticus. Over centuries, this secret society wrote and compiled a spell book of Dark Aether rune magic they called the Tome of Rituals which could only be read by the society's inner circle. As time went by, the members of the Société Occulte became the wealthiest and most powerful people in Europe.
To maintain their secrecy, they never met at the same place until one day a senior member of the society, an architect and named Lucien Poiret, designed a mystic fortress for the society, Hotel Royal. The fortress was built on top of the which were laid out in a Dark Aether rune magic pattern, creating a dimensional nexus. Within Hotel Royal, the Société performed seances and rituals using the Tome of Rituals, calling upon the various entities to help them increase their wealth and influence. However, a crisis occurred during the leading the Société to disappear and the Tome of Rituals to be torn apart with its pages hidden in sacred places around the world by entrusted members.
At some point, for unknown reasons, the connection between Earth and the Dark Aether was completely severed; turning the artifacts into inert relics forgotten by humanity.
==World War II==
===Uncovering the past===
As the Nazis gained power in Germany, many of its members turned to like and the Ahnenerbe. As the head of the Schutzstaffel, Himmler was particularly interested in proving the existence of the so-called , establishing Kampfgruppe Die Wahrheit ("The Truth"), a battalion led by SS-Oberführer Wolfram Von List, to raid and plunder antiquities around the world.
At the beginning of the war, in early September 1939, Wolfram Von List arrived at the office of Professor Gabriel Krafft, a demonologist at the . Krafft was translating an ancient scroll with the help of his assistant, Franz, when Von List ordered him to leave the university and join Die Wahrheit as an advisor. After Krafft refused, Von List killed Franz to make him cooperate.
Krafft was sent to a SS prison with other explorers, historians, and archaeologists. Von List soon ordered them to help Die Wahrheit find places and relics such as the , , , and . While most obeyed, regardless of whether or not the places or relics really existed, Krafft defied Von List. Soon after, the SS broke into Krafft's home and arrested his spouse, Sasha. With no choice left, Krafft agreed to help Von List, who would give him letters from his spouse to keep him in line, but made a secret promise to himself to use any findings against the Nazis.
Krafft's first assignment was to decipher documents seized at Hotel Royal, the infamous fortress of the Société Occulte. He soon realized the documents were pages from the Tome of Rituals and was tasked to track down more pages. He recognized the handwriting of notes in the margins of some pages which belonged to one of the patrons of the University of Leipzig. Von List had the patron arrested and tortured, revealing he was a member of the Société entrusted with hiding the Tome pages and listing others who possessed some pages. As more pages were acquired, Krafft deduced the locations of the five artifacts that were mentioned in the Tome.
Over the years, several expeditions were launched around the globe to recover the artifacts, notably in , the island of in Japan, , , and 's where a lost temple dedicated to Osiris was found. While the artifacts appeared alien and anachronistic, they had little to no use in advancing the Nazis racial agenda. Nonetheless, Von List kept them by his side.
===Projekt Endstation===
As the war drew to a close, the Nazis were desperate to win the war by any means, with several programs dedicated to ensuring a victory for the Reich. One such program was the , the Nazi program dedicated to atomic research and uranium enrichment. During summer 1943, , the head of Uranveiren approved Projekt Endstation ("Project Terminus") which proposed a massive particle accelerator and collider called "Cyclotron" designed by Doctors Ulrich Vogel and Lukas Kurtz and funded by the former. The site was located in Morasko, a wooded area in the Reich District of in Nazi-occupied Poland.
====The Incident====
On March 7th, 1944, at 10:03 pm, Vogel and Kurtz performed the twelfth test of the Cyclotron. During the process, the particle accelerator malfunctioned and opened a rift between their world and the Dark Aether, unknowingly breaching the Dimensional Membrane between the two realms - once again re-connecting them. Creatures started coming through the gateway and men close to the collider began to necrotize and turn into zombies. The small outbreak was contained but the Cyclotron was now operating on its own without an external source of power.
====Exo-Element 1 Studies====
Over the course of the next few days, Vogel studied the fallen soldiers to find a way to reverse their condition. The discovery and study of the rift was also seen with great interest by and the German High Command. On March 16th, they were able to isolate an exotic and unknown element they classified as "Exo-Element 1" which would later be dubbed Aetherium. Vogel started working on a decontamination chamber designed to reverse the condition of the fallen soldiers and restore their brain activity. He believed that if they could control the process of necrotization, they could weaponize it and create an army of undead soldiers to save the Reich.
On April 3rd, the decontamination chamber was complete and was nicknamed "Der Wechsler" by Kurtz. The chamber was able to remove the Exo-Element 1 from the brains of the undead soldiers, restoring some higher functions and reducing the violent outbursts but not enough to bring them back to a state before the contamination.
With the loss of Normandy, Hitler turned his attention once again to Endstation and, by August 1944, tasked Vogel to weaponize all their findings. Vogel continued to work on his idea of an army of soldiers who could rise up after being killed. A wonder weapon was also created from an Exo-Element 1 collector, the Decompressive Isotopic Estrangement Machine.
At some point in late 1944, a new Endstation facility was established beneath Berlin including a tunnel made to open and sustain a rift to the Dark Aether. On November 15th, Kurtz developed lures and an Exo-Element 1 harvester which could only collect essence from Tempests, crystalline humanoid capable of teleportation. The next day, Vogel developed a conversion machine using specimens rich in Exo-Element 1 which would allow them to open a portal to the Dark Aether.
===Resistance against Die Wahrheit===
====Instrument of Revenge====
The weakening of the Dimensional Membrane during the incident at Endstation not only opened a rift to the Dark Aether, but also awoke the artifacts uncovered by Die Wahrheit. The night of the incident, Von List was in his office in a mobile headquarter near , as Die Wahrheit was supporting . When he grabbed one of the artifacts, he bonded with Kortifex. The former Lord of the Dark Aether made a bargain with Von List, granting him the power to raise the dead and in return Von List would help Kortifex make his vengeful return to the Dark Aether.
Von List immediately notified Himmler about the situation, gathered all the pages of the Tome of Rituals regarding the Scepter of Kortifex and locked them away in his office. Kortifex ordered him to destroy the other artifacts, but Von List balked, thinking he could draw from their power too, and placed them in a locked trunk.
He subsequently mobilized Die Wahrheit and launched an unauthorized deployment to Stalingrad called Operation Revenant, taking Krafft with him. Von List was present during the Battle of Stalingrad, leading a SS rescue mission to try break the siege. When the surrendered, Von List saw it as a humiliating defeat. Turning the city into the epicenter of his new operation was his ultimate revenge. Von List also launched several special operations, securing Hotel Royal in Paris in preparation of an invasion, occupying a farm in Normandy which became a weak spot in the dimensional veil after thousands of soldiers died during World War I, operating a dig site located in swamp known as "Shi No Numa" in to learn more about the other Elder Gods, and also guarding the temple where the Scepter of Kortifex was found in Egypt's Eastern Desert.
When Die Wahrheit arrived in Stalingrad, taking the locals by surprise, the soldiers began securing the area and exhuming mass graves, both Germans and Soviets. Von List locked Krafft in a room with the remaining pages of the Tome of Rituals and the artifacts ordering him to find anything that could boost Kortifex's powers. He also handed him a blank notebook to record the events that were about to unfold. Having had enough of Von List's abuse, Krafft picked the lock of the trunk containing the artifacts and grabbed the Mask of Bellekar. The initial shock nearly killed Krafft, seizing up his heart and causing him to hit his head. When he awoke, he was no longer alone having bonded with Bellekar. The two discussed a plan to stop Von List and Kortifex before Krafft released Bellekar back into her artifact, realizing he was not an optimal host for her.
Von List began awakening the exhumed corpses, creating "revenants" for his army of the dead. Horrified, Krafft used a radio to contact the Allied Powers for help before sealing his room with a spell found in the Tome of Rituals, protecting himself from Von List and his revenants. However, he was unable to reverse the spell, becoming trapped in the room. Not long after, a team Special Forces operatives arrived in the city as Kortifex used a containment spell to cut off the area from the outside. 
Krafft would lower the crate containing the remaining Artifacts down to Special Forces, allowing them to bond with the other Elder Gods, Bellekar, Norticus, Inviktor, and Saraxis. While the operatives couldn't escape the containment spell, the entities were able to send them for a brief amount of time to the other areas of operations led by Die Wahrheit, hindering the battalion capabilities. With the help of Krafft, Bellekar also developed a transmitter to send messages to the Dark Aether, hoping other beings will join the fight against the former Lord.
Although Kortifex promised Von List he could create an army of millions, the task was far more difficult that the Elder God had anticipated. To strength his power, Kortifex called upon Augmentor Worms from the Dark Aether, and used an ancient blood rite to create Syphoncores sacrificing some revenants to multiply them. He also summoned Zaballa, to support Von List and Die Wahrheit; although Zaballa couldn't cross over the dimensional veil, she could create copies of herself to appear on Earth.
The Special Forces also encountered a Void spell that led to the Dark Aether itself. Within the spell, they found a page of Tome of Rituals protected by four unbreakable anchors. Unable to reach the page, the operatives escaped the spell back to Stalingrad and the Elder Gods began elaborating a plan to get it.
====Stealing the Tome page====
Following an explosion at Die Wahrheit's outpost in the Egyptian desert, a portal appeared in Stalingrad allowing the Special Force operatives to escape the city and reach the outpost while Krafft was still trapped in his room. The portal was created by Vercanna who received one of Bellekar's messages and created an artifact of her own, the Wand of the Wilds. From the outpost, the Special Forces succeeded in creating a beachhead into the Dark Aether, located in the Corrupted Lands below the Construct floating up in the sky.
Vercanna also sent the Decimator Shield to the other side, where he became trapped within crystals that formed following the explosion. Vercanna found the shield dormant in the Wilds of the Dark Aether and, taking pity in the former Night Legions commander, believed that he could be helpful for Bellekar's plan. She didn't trust the humans at first, fearing the shield could fall into the wrong hands but realized they were valuable.
To free the shield from the crystals, Saraxis sent the operatives to their beachhead in the Dark Aether to purge Augmentor Worms. Kortifex was puzzled about their actions, but soon realized they were trying to awaken the Decimator Shield. The Special Forces successfully removed the worms from the beachhead, freeing the shield. However, he remained dormant leading Vercanna to step in and hijack several of Kortifex's Syphoncores in order to use the revenants' Life-Energy to restore the shield. Kortifex sent Zaballa to stop them, but the assassin was defeated.
Upon waking up, the Decimator pledged to fight against Kortifex. While the Elder Gods argued if they needed to return to Stalingrad, Vercanna opened a portal, at Saraxis' request, leading directly into the Void spell. The operatives entered the spell and used the shield to break the four anchors allowing them to retrieve the Tome page. After they returned, Krafft discovered that the page contained information on how to separate Kortifex from Von List, leading the group to wonder why neither Von List nor Kortifex used it against them. With the page in their possession, Vercanna fully pledged herself to the Allies' cause and their resistance, stating that she had found her "new clan".
====Restoring the Relic====
In the weeks that followed the loss of the Tome Page, Von List ordered all Die Wahrheit personnel around the world to regroup at the Eastern Desert outpost as operations were resumed. This included personnel at the Shi No Numa excavation site, who promptly left for Egypt upon Von List's orders, leaving behind radio equipment, traps including Electro-Shock Defenses and the Flogger, as well as the experimental Wunderwaffe DG-2 wonder weapon developed by Endstation's Ulrich Vogel, much to Von List's dismay.
The Special Forces arrived at the abandoned outpost to find the Relic Mirror mentioned in the Tome Page with the goal of separating Kortifex from Von List. Although they asked Saraxis about information regarding the relic, she couldn't remember anything as she had big gaps in her memory, including her youth in the Dark Aether. Vercanna pointed that the shrine located in the swamp could help Saraxis remember her past.
The operatives successfully reactivated the shrine which released an Echo of Saraxis's memories. When asked about the relic, the Echo replied that the relic, a bronze mirror, was split in half. When Saraxis attempted to pry further, the Echo reacted aggressively claiming that Saraxis had "abandoned her", and that she was now a mere shadow of who she once was, before vanishing. Vercanna informed the Special Forces that the two halves of the mirror laid between the mortal world and the Dark Aether. Using the Flogger, they collected and drank the blood of revenants, allowing them to see between the two realms. With this new sight, they found the two pieces of the relic and placed them on the altar at the Dig Site where the artifact of Saraxis was originally found.
The operatives managed to summon the Echo, who took the form of Saraxis. Saraxis once again demanded to know why Kortifex erased her memories, and why she seemed to matter to him. The Echo obliged and revealed that Saraxis was once Kortifex's consort. Shocked, Saraxis refused to accept the truth, which enraged the Echo who then attacked the operatives. The Special Forces eventually defeated the Echo who revealed more of Saraxis' past including her child and Kortifex's punishment. With the Echo gone, Saraxis' memories were restored including Kortifex's obsession with the Construct. She warned that if Von List and Kortifex were to gain control of the Construct's powers, "everything and everyone, living or dead, will end up as their playthings". With the Relic Mirror restored, the operatives prepared for their final battle against Kortifex in the Eastern Desert.
====Downfall of the Archon====
The original explosion at the Egyptian outpost was intended to create a bridge between Earth and the Dark Aether to strengthen Kortifex's powers and bring more of his allies. Although the crystal contamination was deemed to safe at first, conditions significantly deteriorated in the week after all Die Wahrheit personnel were recalled. In order to prevent the Allied Forces from interfering, Von List used Kortifex's powers to sabotage the Pack-a-Punch Machine found in the area. This however increased the contamination leading to the death of every Die Wahrheit soldier with the exception of Von List.
The Special Forces arrived in Egypt not long after and managed to repair the Pack-a-Punch machine. Using the Relic Mirror, they separated Kortifex from Von List sending him back into his artifact. However, Kortifex appeared in front of the operatives revealing that it was all part of his plan; he was now free to return into the Dark Aether to become the new Archon and wipe out Earth from existence. Kortifex then teleported a dumbfounded Von List into Krafft's room who held him at gunpoint.
The operatives reached the Dark Aether as Kortifex was petitioning the Construct. Although Kortifex sent his forces against the Special Forces, the Construct noticed them and prevented him from killing them. The Construct then sent the operatives back to Egypt and set up its trials to decide if they were worthy of challenging Kortifex.
With the help of Von List and also the Decimator, the Special Forces completed the three trials. Back in Stalingrad, Krafft repeatedly asked Von List about his spouse. Von List ultimately revealed that Sasha died many months before, and that he was the one writing the letters, which "sickened" him. In a flash of anger, Krafft shot Von List, killing him.
The Special Forces returned to the Dark Aether and discovered that Kortifex became the new Archon. A fight soon broke out as Kortifex transformed into a gigantic version of himself. As the Archon, Kortifex was able to use the powers of the other Elder Gods, including Vercanna's healing abilities. The Construct also protected Kortifex, creating an energy shield around him. Nonetheless, the operatives managed to defeat Kortifex, killing him by destroying his three eyes. As he died, Kortifex turned back into his normal size and his corpse fell into the depths of the Corrupted Lands of the Dark Aether while the Construct disappeared.
===Operation Baldr===
Having studied the relativistic effects of the Dark Aether since the incident at Endstation, Vogel proposed a plan to Uranveiren and the German High Command: sending an army into the Dark Aether which they could summon as a last resort to ensure the victory of the Third Reich. On December 14th, 1944, the plan was approved and named "Operation Baldr" after the who rose after death.
After a month of preparation, Task Force Baldr, under the command of Gruppenführer Müller, arrived at the Morasko facility.
Vogel sent instructions in Berlin on how to open the portal and on January 27th, he ordered all personnel to evacuate the Morasko facility. He also tasked Kurtz to take care of his young daughter, Angelika, as he stayed behind. Soon after, Task Force Baldr crossed the threshold to the Dark Aether. The crossing was too much for the cyclotron with several seals blowing in the process contaminating the facility with more Exo-Element 1. Vogel, however, stayed in the facility and continued to monitor the Task Force for the next two days to ensure they were in position, believing he secured the future of the Reich. Unbeknownst to Vogel, Task Force Baldr would become corrupted by the Dark Aether and turned into different creatures.
===The Red Army at Endstation===
On February 3rd, 1945, the 8th Guards Army of the Red Army arrived in Morasko and entered the facility. They recorded on film their progress, the rift created by the cyclotron and the zombies attack that followed. A week later, a cleaning crew led by Colonel Pavel Lazarev arrived at the facility. 14 soldiers were killed during the cleaning process. After the zombies were eliminated, Lazarev tasked Sergeant Kazimir Zykov of the 1st Guards Tank Army with shutting down the cyclotron. After being sealed inside the facility, Zykov successfully stopped the particle accelerator but, in the process, was stranded in the Dark Aether for years to come.
On February 21st, Kurtz and Angelika were captured by the Red Army. Kurtz was interrogated by Lazarev who accepted to spare Angelika's life if Kurtz gave the names and location of the Endstation scientists. Kurtz agreed and both were allowed to live in the Soviet Union under new names. Lukas Kurtz became Ivan Valentin while Angelika Vogel became Aleksandra Valentina.
The film reels about Projekt Endstation were sent to the Soviet archives and remained hidden for almost 40 years.
==Reactivation of the Cyclotron==
In March 1983, following the announcement of the by US President Ronald Reagan, KGB Chairman ordered the reactivation of Omega Group, a special Spetsnaz unit originally created to study phenomena. Colonel Lev Kravchenko was given command of the unit and was tasked to find a way to counter the SDI, as it was considered a serious threat against the Soviet Union. Kravchenko, however, believed he was made a scapegoat by Chebrikov, thinking Omega Group would be disbanded in a matter of months, if not weeks.
Omega Group was reorganized with Doctor Aleksandra Valentina in charge of their Psychotronics Research and Doctor William Peck, an American who defected to the Soviet Union, as their Exoscientific Phenomena Research Lead. Kravchenko then ordered them to scour the KGB archives for anything that would give them a strategic advantage over the United States and NATO.
Valentina saw this as an opportunity to start her plan. Throughout her childhood, she had been visited by the Forsaken, who claimed to be her "father". He guided her throughout her life, instructing her to complete Operation Baldr and open a portal to the Dark Aether. It also showed her where to find the Endstation film reels hidden within a NKVD intelligence vault when she first joined the KGB.
On July 15th, 1983, Valentina presented the reels to Kravchenko who immediately flagged them for review with Chebrikov and the Committee. After the reels were reviewed, Chebrikov authorized Omega Group to weaponize the findings of Projekt Endstation and harness the power of the Cyclotron and the Dark Aether. The new operation was dubbed Operatsiya Grobovshchik, or Operation Undertaker.
The Endstation facility in Morasko was secured by Omega Group in late August 1983 and, after two months of study, the Cyclotron and the other experimental devices were restored to operational condition by late October. The reactivation of the Cyclotron took place on November 1st, 1983 and was overseen by Valentina and Peck. Valentina tasked two men, officers Medvedev and Orlov to reactivate the collider. The men were successful, but Medvedev died and Orlov was turned into a Megaton in the process. With the reactivation of the Cyclotron, several gateways and dimensional breaches started to appear around the world including a massive super-breach in the Ural Mountains. As the facility became overrun, Omega Group left the area.
===Formation of Requiem===
On November 3rd, an emergency meeting took place regarding the Outbreak Zones. The meeting included the US Secretary of Defense and the Director of the CIA who were tasked by Reagan to find a "proportional response" to the situation while also containing and suppressing the threat. Edward "Eddie" Richtofen, the Associate Deputy Director of the , proposed to create a sub-group within the DS&T which would be staffed internationally but remain firmly under US and CIA control. Unbeknownst to anyone else, Richtofen had ulterior motives to creating Requiem. Ultimately answering to a mysterious "Board of Directors", he was above all else dedicated to the completion of Project Janus.
Two days later, on November 5th, the CIA "Office of Requiem" was created by Casey. Richtofen was named as the Director of Requiem, leading the group. Under his leadership, four departments were created: Field Operations led by Special Operations Officer Grigori Weaver, Containment and Security led by Major Mackenzie Carver, Unnatural Science led by Doctor Elizabeth Grey and Energy Research led by Doctor Oskar Strauss, a former member of Projekt Endstation, who joined the United States after the war. 
In the following days, Tatyana, a contact of BND agent Samantha Maxis, told Maxis that the KGB uncovered something from their archives and a ground operation was happening in Poland. Tatyana managed to steal a copy of the Endstation film and sent it to Maxis. Believing that the BND was compromised by Omega Group, Samantha left the agency but asked Dieter, the only BND agent she still trusted, to send the Endstation tape to Requiem.
After the CIA received the tape, Samantha contacted Weaver to persuade him to look at the footage. When Weaver asked her to turn herself over to the CIA for protection, she refused and even fought off teams sent by Weaver to retrieve her. Maxis then left Germany and arrived in Romania to pursue a new contact within Omega Group, Captain Sergei Ravenov, whom she believed could be turned.
===Operation Cerberus===
With the intel provided by Maxis, Requiem authorized Operation Cerberus, a reconnaissance operation in Poland, on November 13, 1983. A Strike Team was dispatched to the Projekt Endstation facility where they discovered the Cyclotron and its gateway to the Dark Aether. During their exploration of the site, the Strike Team entered the other dimension and encountered Mayak, the Megaton Overlord. The Strike Team also found a modified computer where a stranger made contact with them and retold his journey in the Dark Aether and the dangers present in this dimension.
The Strike Team managed to partially resurrect Orlov using Der Wechsler, allowing him to assist them in shutting down the Cyclotron to close the rift opened at Morasko. Orlov warned the Strike Team that Omega Group had big plans and stayed behind to ensure the facility would be destroyed. Raptor One exfiltrated the team as a nuclear detonation occurred. Weaver congratulated the team personally but noted that their fight was far from over.
In the months following the destruction of Projekt Endstation, more rifts appeared around the world.
==A New Arms Race==
Following the success of Operatsiya Grobovshchik, a new operation called Operatsiya Inversiya, or Operation Inversion, was approved by Omega Group on November 9 and would be led by Valentina. The goal of the operation was to weaponize Aetherium and anything they could find within the Dark Aether to win the Cold War. The construction of a facility in Vietnam, Outpost 25, began on November 11th. The location of the facility was chosen because of its dimensional fertility as a dimensional breach opened near the region. Outpost 25 would be overseen by Peck.
===Aetherium Development===
At Outpost 25, Peck designed a portal chamber on December 8th and a month later, on the night of January 8th, 1984, Peck and Doctor Dimitri Kuhlklay managed to create a stable rift to the Dark Aether. Teams of Omega soldiers were now sent daily to collect Aetherium crystals as well as biological, botanical, geological specimens, and liquid samples. Peck noted that Aetherium could yield massive amounts of energy and could be used as a sustainable power source leading him to design an Aetherium Reactor on February 10th. Outpost 25 was now entirely running on three reactors.
The excursions to the Dark Aether proved to be extremely dangerous inflicting heavy loss among Omega ranks. To address the problem, Kravchenko requested the conscription of Aetherium miners, dubbed "Aethernauts", which was approved on February 15th. Soon after, prisoners from work camps started to arrive at Outpost 25, comprised of common criminals, political dissidents, foreign prisoners, and intellectuals from both the Soviet Union and Vietnam. While the collection of Aetherium crystals rose to 237%, the excursions were still incredibly dangerous, with a quarter of Aethernauts sent to the Dark Aether never coming back. To provide protection to the mining teams, Kuhlklay designed the Red Soldier Mechanized Armor although Peck took credit for it. Some miners who came back exhibited mild radiation poisoning or returned fully necrotized; others suffered long-term memory loss. To circumvent this, Peck developed a memory transference machine, hoping it would restore the fractured minds of their conscripts. Peck also developed a truth serum to help recover memories.
On March 14th, five more test sites were opened throughout the Soviet Union with four of them successfully creating their own breaches. Omega Group were now able to control where and when a dimensional breach would occur with nearly 70% accuracy. On March 19, Peck designed the first teleportation prototype at Outpost 25. Work on weaponizing the process began early April and a missile battery in the Ural Mountains was identified as a candidate. On April 8th, Kuhlklay developed the RAI K-84, the first assault rifle powered with Aetherium but was scolded by Peck who deemed it a waste of time.
On May 11th, the canvassing for potential targets of Operatsiya Inversiya was completed by the KGB. While Valentina pushed hard to include Berlin in order to achieve her own plan, the Committee selected Washington, D.C. and Manhattan.
Requiem also developed new technologies using Aetherium samples retrieved from various Outbreak Zones they contained. Carver and his Containment and Security Division developed the Weaponized Aetherium Neutralizer Devices and equipped all their operators in the field with them. Requiem also planned to thoroughly study the Dark Aether from within Soviet territory in the Ural Mountains and designed several devices for the operation: a Specimen Analyzer station and a Recon Rover conceived by Grey and the Unnatural Science Division on March 13th and April 14th respectively, an Extraction Rocket and an Essence Conversion Module designed by Strauss and the Energy Research Division on April 17th and April 28th respectively as well as a Dimensional Disruptor satellite created by Carver and the Containment and Security Division on March 8th. Requiem also developed an Aetherium Explosive designed to destroy massive Aetherium crystals detected in the Ural Outbreak Zone.
===Fall of Outpost 25===
Following the destruction of Endstation, Samantha Maxis, now operating on her own, had regular contact with Ravenov who gave her documents and intel regarding the operations conducted by Omega Group. With the information provided by Ravenov, Maxis realized the full extent of Omega Group's plan. She decided to travel to Vietnam to meet with him and infiltrate Outpost 25 to expose Omega Group and deliver their research to Requiem. However, Omega Group intercepted some communications from Maxis and became aware of her plan. In early June 1984, Gorev, Kravchenko's right-hand man and Tactical Operations Lead, traveled to Outpost 25 and warned Peck about Maxis. He tasked Peck to capture and interrogate her to find who was the mole at the facility.
Peck managed to capture Maxis and started to interrogate and torture her with no result. When he realized what happened, Ravenov contacted Weaver to warn him about Maxis' situation. Weaver and the rest of Requiem senior staff discussed preparations for Operation Lost Property, a rescue mission to exfil Maxis and acquire any intel present in the facility. Under secret orders from the Director of Requiem himself, Peck sent Maxis to the Dark Aether telling her she was worthless and that nobody was coming for her. As time flowed differently in the Dark Aether, Maxis spent a considerable amount of time in the shadowy hellscape. As time went by, she reflected on herself and her past. Her memory, however, became blurred and it became difficult to remember who she was. At one point, she awoke with blood on her hands holding a knife in the middle of what seemed to be a frenzied attack against Omega soldiers. Her hatred towards Peck grew stronger each day. She would also encounter a lost Russian soldier in the Dark Aether named Pyotr, who she told not to lose faith and that despite how he looked, he was not worthless. 
On June 15th, 1984, the dimensional breach at Outpost 25 released a massive burst of Aetherium creating a lethal phasic barrier around the facility and turning everyone into zombies and other creatures. Peck managed to hide in a safe room and contacted Omega Group HQ for rescue as he believed he was the sole survivor, not aware that Ravenov also survived in a nearby village. With the help of Ravenov, a Requiem Strike Team managed to enter the facility using one of the teleporters. The team reluctantly helped Peck restore the facility power in exchange for Maxis, but unbeknown to them, they helped him send all the research back to Omega. The team also found another modified computer and continued to communicate with the mysterious stranger. After using a truth serum on him, Peck revealed that Maxis was lost in the Dark Aether. The serum soon wore off and Peck tricked the team into disrupting the dimensional rift, destroying all electronics and intel stored in the facility. They, however, used Requiem's Dimensional Disruptor satellite to open a new breach allowing Maxis to escape. The team and Maxis managed to leave the facility and regrouped with Ravenov. Suddenly, a massive Orda appeared in the village but was neutralized by the team who fled the area. As Raptor One arrived, Ravenov informed Maxis that an operation was happening in the Ural Mountains, and he had to stay in the field like she once did.
Back at Outpost 25, a detachment of Omega soldiers led by Valentina arrived to meet with Peck. To his surprise, Kravchenko also traveled to Vietnam. After having expressed his dissatisfaction with Peck's actions, Kravchenko asked him to show a demonstration of his commitment to Omega. Kravchenko then pulled out a knife and cut out Peck's right eye.
===Ural Outbreak Zone===
Upon returning to Requiem HQ, Maxis was placed in quarantine to be tested. While Requiem estimated she only spent roughly 48 hours in the Dark Aether, physiological and metabolic data from the tests indicated she spent several months in the other dimension like she claimed. They also noted her eyes were now purple. Requiem kept her in isolation as they believed she was responsible for the outburst of Aetherium in Outpost 25. She was subsequently questioned by Carver, Strauss, and Grey who were interested with her experience in the Dark Aether. She was deemed unfit to return to the field and was kept inside Requiem HQ for several months, with the radio she had used to contact the Requiem strike teams confiscated. Weaver, who visited her often, decided to give her a female rottweiler to keep her company.
On June 20th, 1984, Requiem was authorized to launch Operation Threshold, a massive endeavor aimed to study the Ural Outbreak Zone and retrieved Aetherium samples using devices developed by Requiem departments in the previous months. The operation started to interfere with Omega's plan but both organizations tried to avoid direct interaction to prevent an escalation of the conflict.
Unable to use teleporters within the Ural Outbreak Zone, Omega started to install Boost Modules designed at Outpost 25 on June 21st. The landing pads, however, could not be retrieved forcing Omega's staff and soldiers to be fitted with parachutes. Omega survey teams noted that the Outbreak Zone was made of a massive phasic barrier separating small regions like islands in the ocean. They also noted that the barrier grew by 100 micrometers since it first appeared on November 1st, 1983. They believed the barrier was maintained by giant Aetherium crystals acting as terraforming nodes to match the properties of the Dark Aether.
On July 8th, Peck arrived at a missile silo in the Ural Outbreak Zone with the task of continuing work on Operatsiya Inversiya. Work on Reality Inversion warheads began immediately. Zykov began communicating with Peck from one of the modified computers Omega retrieved from the Outbreak Zone. Soon after, Peck assisted Omega soldiers in capturing four Tempests which were attracted to the Aetherium power nodes. Peck noticed the way they metabolized Aetherium and found a way to use them for the Reality Inversion warheads. By July 14th, the design of Reality Inversion warheads was finished; using the captured Tempests to metabolize Aetherium and increase the yield of the missiles, the warheads were able to create a dimensional breach as large as 500 meters on impact and, in turn, form an Outbreak Zone of over 800 kilometers. Moreover, the electromagnetic interference generated by the Tempests would prevent the West from detecting the warheads and firing back.
On July 22nd, Kravchenko took the leadership of Operatsiya Inversiya from Valentina. Much to Valentina's disappointment, Kravchenko learned that something was lurking in the Dark Aether and that while the West was still a threat, something far bigger loomed on the other side. This information was secretly given to Kravchenko by the Director of Requiem himself. The Reality Inversion warheads were now pointed against this new enemy. On August 16th, Valentina received the vision of her "father" reassuring her that not all was lost, and his plan was still on schedule with new instructions for her. Knowing that Ravenov was still alive, she purposefully and indirectly leaked intel and documents regarding Operatsiya Inversiya to him. At one point, Gorev noticed Peck's strange behavior talking with a modified computer and met with Valentina to discuss it. Fearing her plan might be discovered, she scolded Peck and questioned his loyalty to Omega as he explained he had learned about an army gathering in the Dark Aether and the "greatest evil the world had ever known". Valentina also prevented Gorev from warning Kravchenko about it, saying she would report it to him directly.
In early October 1984, Zykov revealed himself to the Requiem Strike Team in the Ural Mountains. Requiem soon realized that Zykov was behind the communications with the modified computers as well as the crafting stations, the Dark Aether crates, the beverages with physiologically altering effects, and the kiln fortifying weapons. Zykov warned Requiem that an army was mobilizing in the Dark Aether, and they needed to be ready. He also pleaded with them to help him escape and go home.
==Confrontations==
===Failure of Operatsiya Inversiya===
On November 16th, with the help of Ravenov, who had acquired a listening device designed by Valentina based on the Beacon mechanism used by Requiem's team to navigate through the Ural Outbreak Zone, and the help of Grey and her comms protocols, Maxis established a covert and secure communication line with Requiem's Strike Team without Weaver's knowledge. She exhorted the Strike Team to meet with Ravenov in the Ruka's missile silo and help him thwart Operatsiya Inversiya. When a Strike Team arrived at the location, Ravenov managed to secure the control room of the silo. They discovered that the warheads were still pointed to the US East Coast. When Ravenov asked Maxis for a target, she stated that no one should have access to the warheads, and they should be dumped into the . To launch the missiles, Ravenov needed the help of the Strike Team to retrieve the warheads launch keys as he prepared them. After initiating the launch sequence however, they found out that massive Aetherium crystals were obstructing the warhead hatches and a giant Tempest called Legion guarded them. With only nine minutes before launch, the Strike Team successfully defeated Legion and destroyed the crystals allowing the hatches to open. As the warheads launched, Raptor One, who was sent by Maxis, arrived and the team left the area while Ravenov stayed in the Ural Mountains. In the weeks following the event at Ruka, the Strike Team was cleared to return to active duty after almost facing a court martial, only to be spared by the Director of Requiem.
Weaver, who was furious about what had happened, confronted Grey and warned her to never cross his path ever again. He also confronted Maxis and, after a heated exchange, confined her to her quarters again with no more walks around the facility with her dog. Weaver soon received new orders from the Director of Requiem and, on December 1st, had Maxis taken away for "additional testing" based on reports from Grey about the high levels of Aetherium contamination in her bloodstream and cellular changes. As she was taken away, Weaver promised to take care of her dog.
On December 3rd, after two days of travel, Maxis arrived at Block 8, a classified facility of the CIA built with an Aetherium-seal. She was maintained in isolation after she attempted to flee the facility upon arrival. Maxis was subjected to several interrogation sessions led by the Director of Requiem to assess her powers. During these sessions, he would ask her questions regarding her past that he himself already knew, such as her birthday and place of birth. After fifteen days, the Director managed to push her by stating that nobody at Requiem was caring for her and that she was just a "sad, little, lost girl". Filled with anger, Maxis used her telekinetic abilities to break the glass in her room. The Director continued to torture Maxis over the next two months. During one session, he threatened to have her dog shot if she didn't teleport her somewhere safe.
===Capture of the Strike Team===
At one point, Ravenov contacted Weaver, using Maxis' direct line, informing him that several Omega scientists, known as "The Omega Eight", were ready to defect to Requiem as dissent and division were spreading within Omega Group. Weaver was soon authorized to launch Operation Excision to retrieve the defectors. 
On November 30th, Kravchenko reported that the missiles couldn't be recovered and would remain in the ocean. He soon decided to take direct actions against Requiem and tasked Doctor Hugo Jager, the Research Lead of Necro-Analytics at Omega, to infiltrate the defecting group of scientists. Jager's mission, code-named Operatsiya Issecheniye, was to eliminate the scientists and set up a trap for Requiem's elite Strike Team. Kravchenko also became suspicious of Valentina after learning from Gorev that Peck had been talking to Zykov via one of the modified computers and planned to speak with her directly.
On December 14th, Weaver contacted the Strike Team and informed them to meet with Ravenov and the Omega Eight near a sanatorium. Their helicopter, however, had crashed and they were now missing. After the Strike Team located the crash site, they recovered a message left by Jager indicating the scientists survived and were heading near the monument located on the lake next to the sanatorium. The Strike Team also learned about the Aetherium Neutralizer, a device developed by one of the defectors, Doctor Natalya Zarkova, to neutralize Aetherium particles allowing safe passage through the deadly phase. A modified Recon Rover was left behind by the scientists to be used by the Strike Team to reach them. When the Strike Team arrived at the Monument, they discovered the corpses of the scientists and a message from Jager taunting them and revealing his mission. Jager also indicated that the Aetherium Neutralizer was now in Omega's possession. As the monument was being overrun with an Orda appearing, Weaver ordered the team to leave the area. Raptor One arrived soon after to exfil the team, but they were shot down by Omega on their way out. Kravchenko arrived at the crash site and, as Omega soldiers dragged Raptor One from the helicopter, ordered the Strike Team to surrender. They were captured soon after.
==The Forsaken Threat==
In the early weeks of January 1985, Omega Group realized the extent of Valentina's deception and learned about her true identity as Ulrich Vogel's daughter. After the Operatsiya Inversiya failure and the loss of the Reality Inversion warheads, Valentina left Omega Group and remained hidden in Berlin where she found the Endstation lab. She began her work to open a portal to the Dark Aether and complete Operation Baldr.
The Director of Requiem, however, knew about Valentina's plan and secretly sent an experimental robot, Klaus, designed by Grey, as well as a to a CIA safehouse hidden beneath the in order to stop her. However, the team intercepted a communique meant for the Director regarding Project Janus. To prevent any leak about the project, the Director activated Klaus to kill the operatives stationed at the safehouse.
===Defeating Valentina===
In late January 1985, Valentina opened a portal to the Dark Aether by following the instructions left by her father forty years before. An outbreak zone appeared around one of Berlin's checkpoints unleashing the undead Nazi soldiers that was once Task Force Baldr. Requiem managed to contain the situation and evacuate the inhabitants by using a cover story about a leak of nerve gas stockpile dating from the last war. The nuclear device, however, was lost when the outbreak happened.
On February 2nd, after being held prisoner in for several weeks, the Strike Team was released by Kravchenko into the Berlin Outbreak Zone to stop Valentina and prevent the Dark Aether army from entering Earth, using Raptor One's life as leverage. The same day, Valentina crossed the threshold to the Dark Aether and met with her "father" who convinced her to ascend and lead their army. Leaving her mortal body, Valentina ascended into a scarlet and crystalized form. It was then that she submitted The Forsaken, the powerful entity which had disguised itself as her father. The Forsaken had gained dominion over the Dark Aether and its Elder Gods and had looked to devour the world since the day Omega Group had reopened the portal at the Endstation facility in Morasko.
The Strike Team reactivated Klaus and uncovered the Endstation lab. Under the command of Gorev, Jager, and Peck, the Strike Team began working on a new Reality Inversion warhead to close the portal. The team recovered the uranium stolen from the lost nuclear device by a Megaton and collected essence from Tempests using Endstation lures. As the team progressed, Valentina stepped out of the portal unleashing more zombies and Tormentors. She proclaimed that the dawn of a new Reich was upon them with her army on its way. Valentina and the Strike Team battled throughout the Outbreak Zone but, ultimately, the team managed to defeat Valentina. The team strapped her to the conversion machine built by her father and activated it, killing her. Her energy refined the essence, completing the Reality Inversion warhead. Klaus understood what its mission was and grabbed the warhead before stepping in the Dark Aether. The explosion closed the portal and stopped the outbreak.
Kravchenko contacted the Strike Team to inform them that Raptor One was waiting for them. The team arrived in the streets of East Berlin. As they untied Raptor One, Kravchenko arrived with his helicopter and attacked the Strike Team. At that moment, Maxis contacted the team and exhorted them to reach one of the building roofs. Maxis used her new powers to open a portal on the roof for the team to escape through. The team was teleported to a room at Block 8 where they met Weaver and Maxis who was accompanied by her dog, Notso. As the Director of Requiem reviewed the footage, he noted that Valentina was no longer a problem and Project Janus could proceed unimpeded. He, however, noted that Maxis was becoming a problem that needed to be dealt with. He continued to torture her via experiments, and by February 1985, forced her to kill a captured Omega operative by threatening to kill Grey. Maxis complied but was distressed by her actions. Over the next two months, the Director continued to assess Maxis' powers which included telepathy, telekinesis, teleportation of objects, and creation of two-way portals among several others. Over the course of this testing, he impressed upon her just how powerful she was.
Two days after the event of Berlin, Kravchenko wrote a report to . In order to save himself and prevent Omega Group from being disbanded, he concocted a story in which Requiem created an Aetherium-based narcotic compound capable of inducing aggressive paranoia and hallucinations which had been injected into Valentina by a Requiem strike team during a mission in the Ural Mountains. Kravchenko stated that the team was captured, interrogated, and later executed while he personally resolved the situation in Berlin.
===Escalation===
By March 1985, the situation in the Ural Outbreak Zone became critical with an increased Dark Aether activity and hostile encounters. Gorev reported to Kravchenko that Dark Aether Vortices started to appear every day accelerating the expansion of the phase and the terraforming of the region. Requiem also reported increased activities and expanded Operation Threshold to the Atlantic and Algeria where two massive outbreak zones had appeared. Several outbreaks also occurred in Germany and Nebraska where people claimed to have heard the voices of deceased relatives. Both organizations assumed this escalation by the Forsaken was in retaliation for the Berlin Incident.
On May 21st, several Outbreak Zones including the Ural Outbreak Zone collapsed entirely with their Phase expanding rapidly and Aetherium levels rising by 5000% in just a few minutes. Requiem reported that the areas were now uninhabitable for life as they knew it and several teams went missing. They believed the Dark Aether vortices heavily contributed to the acceleration of the terraforming process. By the end of the day, each Outbreak Zone continued to slowly grow by 0.25 inches. They concluded that severing their connection with the Dark Aether would be the only solution to reverse the terraforming.
===Securing Zykov===
Before Valentina's scheme, the KGB approved a new operation for Omega Group on January 11th, 1985, Operatsiya Izbavitel, or Operation Deliverer. The goals of the operation were to build a particle accelerator and dimensional amplifier to recover Kazimir Zykov, who would provide information on the Forsaken, and to construct a containment chamber to capture the Forsaken so it could be reprogrammed and use against the Western bloc. However, the approval of the operation was not unanimous, with members of the committee citing the cost of Omega's operation and its limited success. The committee was also concerned about investing in the Dark Aether as the risks outweighed the rewards. warned Kravchenko that the future of Omega Group was tied with the outcome of that new operation.
In the days following his report about the Berlin incident, Kravchenko met with Gorev, Jager and Peck. Kravchenko revealed Izbavitel to Gorev and Jager as well as his new plan with Peck, much to Gorev's dismay and confusion for having been kept in the dark. Zykov provided several schematics and parts to Peck in order to build a device to help him escape and a machine to kill the Forsaken. Unbeknownst to Zykov however, Omega planned to capture the Forsaken rather than kill it. On January 22nd, Peck finished designing the particle accelerator and dimensional amplifier with the particle accelerator matching the specification of the Endstation cyclotron. Peck also contacted the Director of Requiem informing him about the new operation.
On February 9th, Peck reported to Kravchenko that, after several weeks, he finally managed to triangulate the position of Zykov within the Dark Aether, but that it would require Omega to harness primordial Aether energy to extract him from the nightmarish dimension. Peck suggested that Test Site Anna, a facility located in Ukraine which was shuttered following an incident in 1981 and was originally used for Operatsiya Inversiya, would be the perfect facility to build the machines to free him because of its large power grid and equipment made to handle excess amounts of Aetherium.
On March 28th, Peck finalized the containment chamber design for the Forsaken, including a spherical device secretly using specifications from the Director of Requiem. That night, Gorev and Kravchenko discussed the potential targets for unleashing the Forsaken upon including Washington, D.C, New York City, London, Berlin, and Afghanistan. On April 18th, all the resources and personnel of each department at Omega were diverted in support of Operatsiya Izbavitel. With every other operation suspended, personnel were sent to Test Site Anna while skeleton crews remained at every outpost and facility. The reallocation of resources accelerated the timeline of the operation and Peck was confident that everything was going to be fully operational by July with an extraction scheduled for July 4th, 1985. However, Kravchenko revealed to Peck that the timeline had moved up by a month and he needed to be ready for June 4th. Peck contacted the Director of Requiem soon after to inform him about the change.
In early May, Ravenov, who was blacklisted by the CIA following Operation Excision, contacted Weaver and revealed that he had information regarding Operatsiya Izbavitel and its location in the . He had sent a courier to a Requiem dead drop in Madrid with documents hoping that, with the Director knowing of the communication, Maxis would be released in exchange. Maxis was still at Block 8 following the Berlin Incident, but the Director allowed her to contact the different strike teams still in the field before the collapses, as well as sending letters to Weaver and Elizabeth Grey.
On May 12th, Requiem was authorized to proceed with Operation First Domino, a direct response to Omega's Operatsiya Izbavitel, with all the departments working together on this operation aimed at securing Zykov and taking him into custody before Omega could do so. On May 28th, the Director approved Maxis for the operation stating that she had learned a lot about her powers and how to control them. However, he prevented her from returning to the field and ordered her to remain at Block 8 during the operation where she would use her powers to open a portal for the Strike Team.
===Last Stand and Aftermath===
In the early hours of June 4th, 1985, Peck and Kravchenko ran several tests to open a dimensional gateway from the facility observation tower while Jager and Gorev waited in a nearby airfield ready to extract the Forsaken once it was sealed in the containment chamber and bring it to an Omega facility near Moscow. Both men, however, had doubts about the mission's chances of success.
At 9:32 AM, during test number 8, an uncontrolled dimensional breach occurred in the facility consuming all Omega personnel and soldiers apart from Peck and Kravchenko. Kravchenko prevented Peck from closing the gateway until they had Zykov. The Requiem Strike Team arrived outside the facility soon after via a portal created by Samantha. Supported by Ravenov, the team used an Omega teleporter to enter the facility and was greeted by Kravchenko who informed them they were too late. The team reached the observation tower watching over the town square replica where an active teleporter was located. Kravchenko, Peck, and the Strike Team witnessed the return of Zykov from the Dark Aether. The lost Russian thanked them before turning himself into the Forsaken. The entity revealed that while it had been forty years on Earth since Zykov closed the Endstation gateway, four centuries had passed in the Dark Aether during which Zykov had had to survive and evolve. As he consumed stronger beings than himself, Zykov ultimately was replaced by the Forsaken. The entity then taunted Peck, stating that he had tricked Peck into releasing him from the Dark Aether, and that their realm would now be consumed. Kravchenko lashed out at Peck as zombies swarmed the tower. At this moment, Samantha manifested herself in the facility and used her powers to temporarily hold the Forsaken off. Having heard an explosion, Gorev and Jager flew above the facility and discovered what was happening. The two men agreed to ignore Kravchenko's cries for help and reinforcement, leaving the failure of the operation on Kravchenko alone and left the area. Jager had a secret contact who could grant both men safe passage to the West. 
The Strike Team learned that the Forsaken was now protected by a phasic barrier and that an Aetherium Neutralizer was required to reach the entity. With the assistance of Peck, the team built a make-shift device. They also received the help of an unlikely ally, Sparagmos; a Zealot of the Dark Aether seeking revenge on the Stealer of Souls for enslaving his Disciples. With his guidance, the team forged the Chrysalax.
As the team activated the device, an explosion occurred in the observation tower where Peck and Kravchenko were located after Peck mistakenly shot a gas pipe. The Strike Team then proceeded to the town square. With the help of Samantha, who used her powers to activate Aetherium Gun Turrets, the team managed to expose the Forsaken's core. As the Forsaken launched a massive counterattack, Samantha sacrificed herself and dived into its core, sealing herself in the Dark Aether. Weakened, the Forsaken was drawn into the spherical device in the containment chamber. With its capture, the Outbreak Zones around the world began to lessen and collapsed. Soon after, a helicopter arrived to transport the spherical device out of the Soviet Union. The Strike Team bid farewell to Ravenov before leaving with Raptor One.
At his deck, the Director of Requiem noted that with Maxis now locked in the Dark Aether, she was no longer a problem for Project Janus. He ordered the Strike Team be sent to Blacksite 13 for "indefinite containment" before shutting down Requiem. He then ordered his agents to move on Requiem's Senior Staff. Watching Grey, Carver, Strauss, Weaver, Raptor One, and the Strike Team being arrested from his monitors, Director Richtofen grabbed his briefcase from his desk and left his office.
==Blacksite 13==
Having survived the events at Test Site Anna, Peck traveled to a boat house in Japan in 1990. There, he would rent a boat from a local fisherman to travel to the Pacific Ocean, where the Operatsiya Inversiya warheads lay, to find "some old friends".
==Zaravan Exclusion Zone==
===Sins of the Father===
In 2021, following his survival in Verdansk, Victor Zakhaev acquired CIA records of Requiem's work and dossiers pertaining to Omega Group and their research. Having learned about the Dark Aether, Aetherium and its properties, Zakhaev discovered the location of remaining Aetherium. He hired Terminus Outcomes, a private military company led by Jack Fletcher, and traveled to Zaravan, Urzikstan.
While a squad of Terminus launched an assault against an American military checkpoint, Zakhaev, Fletcher and another squad infiltrated a building where they discovered the corpses of Grigori Weaver, Elizabeth Grey, Oskar Strauss, and Mackenzie Carver around a table and attached to the machine. When Zakhaev approached the table, the machine opened revealing two vials of enriched Aetherium. As the team left, several cars of Military Policemen arrived at the scene and engaged with the mercenaries. With the situation worsening, Zakhaev threw one of the vials before hiding in their armored car alongside Fletcher.
Watching policemen and mercenaries alike transforming into mindless zombies, Zakhaev realized the power of Aetherium as a weapon against the West.
The entire region quickly turned into an outbreak zone, corrupting all its inhabitants and allowing creatures from the Dark Aether to arrive on Earth, including massive Aether Worms. The region was also periodically hit by an Aether Storm with powerful winds and acid rain, which would cover the entire area. 
Shortly after, Fletcher and Terminus Outcomes returned setting up camps and strongholds, as well as convoys, road and air patrols to support their Aetherium mining operations. Several of Fletcher's lieutenants, referred to as Warlords, also set up Fortresses around the region for their own benefits. Zakhaev also set up his stronghold and Aetherium enrichment facility at the Popov Nuclear Power Plant of Zaravan to obtain weapons-grade material.
===Operation Deadbolt===
====Mounting a response====
Although the CIA was aware Zakhaev was planning something for months, they were unable to stop him before it was too late. Shortly after the outbreak zone was created, Kate Laswell received a message with the codeword "Tangerine" marking the beginning of mobilization.
To contain the outbreak zone, Laswell established Operation Deadbolt with SSO Selma Greene assigned as its leader. 
During the three weeks that followed, many individuals were recruited into Deadbolt. Doctor Hugo Barrera, who held a PhD in Exogeology, was recruited as Chief Scientific Officer to study Aetherium and its impact on the organisms. Captain Lucas Dobbs was tasked with operating a fleet of drones. Color Sergeant Rupinder Kapoor was recruited as Chief Mechanic, overseeing all the vehicles used by the task force. Captain America Fang was tasked with the infil and exfil of any strike team. Sergeant Krystal Miller, a survivor of the Liberty Falls Outbreak, was recruited and assigned as Quartermaster, despite some initial reticence because of her past.
Laswell also assigned Sergei Ravenov to Deadbolt, much to Greene dismay. While Laswell affirmed that Ravenov was an expert about Dark Aether incursions, Greene had no trust in the former Spetsnaz whose dossier remained redacted. Laswell also had her doubts about Ravenov and assigned Johnny "Soap" MacTavish to Deadbolt to handle Field Operations as well as keeping an eye on Ravenov and take any measure necessary in case he turned out to be a liability.
====Nothing Gets In, Nothing Gets Out====
Deadbolt established an Exclusion Zone around Zaravan and divided it into three main zones of operation. The White Zone, or Low Threat Zone, located on the outskirts with less concentrated hordes of zombies and other creatures. Further in the Exclusion Zone was the Orange Zone, or Medium Threat Zone, which featured a greater number of hordes of aggressive zombies. Terminus Outcomes mercenaries were also present within these two zones. At the center of the Exclusion Zone was the Red Zone, or High Threat Zone, which contained fast and aggressive zombies as well as Alpha-class creatures such as the Mega-Abominations.
To prevent Terminus from acquiring Aetherium, Deadbolt launched attacks on their camps and strongholds. Strike teams also hijacked cargo shipments and raided weapon caches from Terminus. They also destroyed any Aether Extraction Rockets used by Terminus to extract Aetherium out of the Exclusion Zone.
The strike teams also worked on preventing and reverting the Dark Aether terraforming around the Exclusion Zone.
They destroyed Aether Cysts that would form Aether Nests in buildings or overrun Terminus strongholds which would then attract hordes of zombies in the area. This phenomenon was reported by Gabriel Krafft during the 1940s and was theorized by Strauss as an organic recon organism for the terraforming process. They destroyed Aether Spores, also called Quasi-Embryonic Atemporal Protovortices, by using inhibitors with infrasound to cancel out their protective field, preventing them to become Dark Aether Vortexes. They cleared out areas of Dark Aether Vortexes while collecting samples using an Aether Containment Vehicle, or ACV, before they could become Phase Crystals. Using a Phase Neutralization Device, they shattered Phase Crystals stopping them from spreading the Dark Aether corruption to create a new terraforming cycle.
====Recovering Ava Jansen====
After acquiring a keycard from a Terminus convoy, a strike team stormed one of the mercenaries' strongholds and discovered a dossier. They learned that Zakhaev was employing a scientist to help his research, Ava Jansen. They discovered a hidden audio file from Jansen asking to be extracted and for Zakhaev to be stopped. Jansen also encoded several files to help Deadbolt find her.
They collected several encrypted cyphers which led them to a tablet left by Jansen with instructions on where to find her and how to establish communication. They soon learned she was located at the Drezna Sub Base, north of Zaravan. When a strike team arrived, Terminus was fighting a zombies incursion, giving them a perfect window to operate. They established communication and met with Jansen who was erasing all her research from the Terminus database, fearing it was too dangerous to keep in Zakhaev's hands. Fletcher and Zakhaev quickly realized what was going on and sent several squadrons against Jansen and the strike team, however Zakhaev was not concerned by Jansen's actions, believing that it was merely a "speed bump" in his plan. The team managed to escape and was extracted by Fang.
Jansen was brought up as a prisoner to the Deadbolt HQ and interrogated. She claimed she was hired by Terminus to work on extradimensional energy research and while she met Zakhaev she did not know he was a wanted terrorist. She also retorted that she would not have worked with Terminus or Zakhaev if the CIA had not shut down her research lab in 2016 after she published scientific papers about Aetherium as a hypothetical element. She however revealed that Zakhaev always kept his last vial of weapons-grade Aetherium on his person. She volunteered to join Deadbolt and use her extensive knowledge of the element to neutralize it. While she still did not trust Jansen, Greene accepted her proposition and added her to the task force.
====Aetherium Neutralizer Prototype====
To earn the trust of Greene and the other members of Deadbolt, Jansen started helping them and the strike teams in the field. At one point, she gave the location of a safe where the Terminus' road patrols routes were kept. She also studied the equipment, technology, and tactics used by Deadbolt, and began working on an Aetherium Neutralizer Prototype.
With the help of a strike team, she acquired tissue samples from various creatures around the Exclusion Zone as well as Aetherium crystals retrieved before Terminus had the chance to send them away. She also had the strike team collect Aetherium essence from various locations to isolate a dimensional "weak spot" needed to test her prototype.
Barrera identified the area around the Levin Resort as the best candidate to test the prototype. With Soap overseeing the operation, a strike team arrived at the site their helicopter was destroyed by SAM turrets located on the roof of the resort. The team had to disable them before the prototype could be delivered. The prototype was mounted on an ACV and the strike had to defend it from both Terminus' attacks and the zombies hordes and creatures, including a Mega-Abominations. The activation of the Neutralizer destroyed the Aetherium crystals in the area, and the element decayed into harmless isotopes in a few seconds. Jansen remarked however that Zakhaev's weapons-grade Aetherium was too enriched and would withstand the prototype. To create a device capable of stop Zakhaev's plan, they needed Oskar Strauss' research on Aetherium which was in the hands of Fletcher's second-in-command, "Legacy" Baranov.
During the briefing, Jansen suffered a massive migraine but noted that it would pass, like the others before it.
====Stopping Zakhaev====
As Deadbolt continued to fight against Terminus' forces, a strike team launched an assault against Legacy's Fortress. They were successful in eliminating Fletcher's top lieutenant and retrieving Strauss' research.
Using the research files, Jansen started working on an improved version of the Aetherium Neutralizer. She discovered the resonant frequency of Aetherium among Strauss' equations and, with the help of Barrera' field teams, was able to get an accurate measurement. With that knowledge, the Aetherium Neutralizer could clear Aetherium deposits as deep as 500 feet. Deadbolt also discovered from Strauss' research that each Aether Storm was instigated by a Disciple known as the Stormcaller. With the help of a strike team, Jansen studied the Stormcaller to figure out how the storms were powered and solve an energy problem with the Neutralizer.
With the Aetherium Neutralizer finalized, Deadbolt launched an assault against Zakhaev's stronghold. A strike team successfully reached the facility and destroyed the enrichment device. Jansen and Ravenov arrived shortly after with the Neutralizer. As the Neutralizer was charging up, an Aether Worm rose from the ground. As they fought the worm, Jansen rushed towards the Neutralizer and activated it, knocking her out. The energy wave killed the Aether Worm but created an opening to the Dark Aether that was drawing everything inside, forcing everyone to hold onto something. Jansen, still unconscious began floating towards the orb as pieces of the Neutralizer entered the Dark Aether. Fletcher and Zakhaev were also present, but when Zakhaev realized the Aetherium in his remaining vial was destroyed, the two men fled.
As Jansen got close to the orb, a mysterious Entity appeared asking Jansen to let her in. Jansen instinctively screamed before the orb disappeared. Ravenov rushed to her side as she woke up, her eyes briefly glowing purple, only remembering a voice calling for her from the Dark Aether. She remembered a similar shadowy figure she saw in her dreams as child. While the Neutralizer successfully purged all Aetherium at first, deposits quickly returned, and the creatures population rebounded. A new anomaly was also detected within the Red Zone.
===A Call from Beyond===
====First Contact====
A strike team was sent to investigate the rift leading to the Dark Aether. The Entity began talking to them, mentioning hidden memories, and being trapped from the outside. As the team found a way to leave the Dark Aether, an Aether Worm appear and destroyed their exit. The team was able to defeat the worm and was allowed to return to their home dimension by the Entity, which stated that it was its domain with memories they could not corrupt.
While the strike team was in the Dark Aether, Ava Jansen was studying files about Ravenov, Requiem leadership and Samantha Maxis she obtained from a CIA terminal. She began suffering from another migraine which made her hallucinated that the Deadbolt HQ was overrun. She saw the reanimated corpses of Weaver, Grey, Strauss, and Carver pointing at her and telling her to let them in. She hallucinated slitting Ravenov's throat and being arrested by Greene. Suddenly, her eyes turned purple and, like possessed, she stated that she would never be alone again and that she would be one.
She regained consciousness as Ravenov informed her of the strike team’s return from the rift and their meeting with the Entity.
====Working with Fletcher====
Shortly after, a second rift appear in the Exclusion Zone. Deadbolt discovered a Terminus convoy moving towards the anomaly. With Zakhaev gone, Fletcher ramped up the mining of Aetherium, but when he discovered the Omega Group dossiers and learned about the Dark Aether, he believed he could get even richer. With several other volunteers and two ACVs, Fletcher approached the rift. Ravenov was also in the area, observing what was happening. Suddenly, the Entity pulled Ravenov alongside the Terminus convoy into the Dark Aether. A strike team was immediately deployed to enter the rift and save Ravenov.
Inside the Dark Aether, the strike team met with Ravenov who contacted Fletcher and his men for a truce and to work together to find a way to escape. Fletcher agreed and they used one of the remaining ACVs to travel around the area. They discovered one of the pieces of the Aetherium Neutralizer used against Zakhaev and believe it could be used to open a gateway back to Zaravan. The ACV was able to open a portal, however Fletcher used an Aetherium vial against the strike team and his own men to cover his escape. After another fight against more creatures, Ravenov and the strike team left the Dark Aether.
Back at the Deadbolt HQ, Ava Jansen confronted Ravenov about his past with Requiem. Jansen knew Requiem was able to weaponize Aetherium, and she hoped that with more information she could find a way to end the outbreak in Zaravan. Ravenov admitted that after Samantha Maxis sacrificed herself to stop another outbreak, the Requiem leadership promised to find a way to save her, but they failed. When Jansen asked about Requiem's research, Ravenov refused to disclose anything, much to her anger. She stated that she would find the answers on their own. As she left the room, Ravenov said that her parents were proud of her.
However, Ravenov began noticing Jansen was not herself, as if she started to fade while the Entity became more present.
====Rescuing Ava Jansen====
Looking for answers, Jansen decided to travel to the Exclusion Zone on her own and was lured to enter the Dark Aether by the Entity. Observing the situation, Greene noticed that Jansen was now able to tear reality itself, creating a new rift. Ravenov and a strike team rushed behind her.
Inside the Dark Aether, Jansen felt like it was a familiar place and continued to walk towards the Entity as it called her to join it. She was able to enter a powerful storm while Ravenov and the strike team were stuck outside. The team managed to weaken the storm by destroyed crystals tied to its powers. As they reached Jansen, she became possessed by the Entity who warned the team that they would not separate them again. The team managed to rescue Jansen from the Entity's grasp and escape the Dark Aether.
At the Deadbolt HQ, Ravenov decided to reveal the truth to Ava as keeping it from her had become too dangerous. He then played a video of Elizabeth Grey's last words to Ava recorded in August 1996. Ava knew Grey was her mother, having discovered she was adopted following a biology class in 2006. At home, she found Grey's research and recognized her face. Her adoptive parents, the Jansen's, later told her that Grey left her to their care when she was just 3 years old.
But she did not know the full truth. Grey revealed that Ava was the daughter of Samantha Maxis and Sergei Ravenov, created from genetic samples acquired by Requiem. Grey carried her and cared for her for 3 years. However, by 1996, the former Requiem leadership was dying following their exposure to the Dark Aether, forcing Grey to give Ava to the Jansen's. Grey revealed that Ava was bound to the Dark Aether because of her genes. She revealed that Ravenov was tasked with watching over Ava.
After that revelation, Ava was angry against at Ravenov for hiding the truth to her. He explained that the Entity was a reflection of Ava, a shadow from the Dark Aether, born at the same time as Ava. He revealed that the Entity grew stronger each time the veil between the Dark Aether and their home dimension is lifted. Angry by all the lies she endured; Ava stormed out of the room.
====Confronting the Entity====
After she recovered from her experience in the Dark Aether, Ava understood that the outbreak in Zaravan was still active because of her connection with the Entity. She planned to confront the Entity and destroy her with the help of Ravenov and a strike team.
She opened a new rift allowing them to enter the Dark Aether. The Entity became aware of their presence, welcoming her "sister". Using her new powers, Ava purged the memories shared between herself and the Entity, reducing her power and influence. The Entity called out to Ava telling her she was keeping her safe, but Ava retorted that their bond was destroying her world. As the team continued to fight back, the Entity grew scared.
Ava forced the Entity to show herself, with no other choice the Entity began to fight the team to force Ava to join her. The team managed to defeat the Entity. As she disappeared, the Entity warned Ava that another being was searching for her, and that the Shadowsmiths would take her.
With the Entity destroyed, the Dark Aether began to fade away from the Exclusion Zone, ending the outbreak.
3 months after the end of the outbreak, Ava traveled to Liberty Falls in West Virginia to learn more about the incursion that occurred in 1991. During a phone call with Ravenov, a shadowy figure appeared in the mirror of her motel room. Ava began to hear voices calling her out. She approached the mirror as a hand was reaching out. Believing it was her mother, Ava grabbed the hand and was pulled into the Dark Aether.
Category:Zombies Mode