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To prepare for the October 25 launch of Black Ops 6, we’re taking a deeper look at the major characters and story beats in the Black Ops series. In this first of a two-part blog, we start from the beginning with a recap of the original Call of Duty: Black Ops plus important narrative from Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Part 2 sets the stage for the Black Ops 6 Campaign and provides info on Campaign challenges, as well as the rewards that can be used in Multiplayer and Zombies.
For now, let’s turn the clock back more than 60 years, to the clandestine events of the early 1960s…
The Story So Far — Majors Events in the Black Ops Timeline
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Operation 40
The covert world of Black Ops began in 1961 with the opening of Call of Duty: Black Ops. Sgt. Frank Woods, Alex Mason, and Joseph Bowman are conducting “Operation 40” during the Bay of Pigs Invasion, whereby the United States supported Cuban exiles in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro and his communist regime. Operation 40 is off the books, its goal being the assassination of Castro in his home during the confusion of the invasion’s opening salvos.
The mission is successful – or so they think – until it’s discovered that their target was a body double. While attempting to escape, Alex Mason is captured and delivered into the hands of the Russians (specifically, Soviet General Nikita Dragovich and Colonel Lev Kravchenko) by the real Castro. Mason is imprisoned in Vorkuta, a Russian gulag, where he meets Viktor Reznov, a Russian captain who players first met in Call of Duty: World at War.
The Numbers Program (AKA Project Ascension)
During Mason’s enforced captivity in Vorkuta, German scientist Friedrich Steiner, under orders from Dragovich, begins to brainwash Mason via the Numbers Program. The intent is to turn Mason into a sleeper agent who, upon receiving a number code, will “awaken” and complete the mission he’s been brainwashed to perform: assassinate President John F. Kennedy.
Reznov, however, has his own vendetta against Dragovich, Kravchenko, and Steiner, who betrayed him following the Battle of Berlin. To get revenge against these three men, Reznov also brainwashes Mason during their imprisonment with orders to hunt down and eliminate the trio.
Prison Break
Reznov and Mason instigate a prison break to get out of Vorkuta, rallying the prisoners to overwhelm the gulag’s defenses. On their way out, Reznov and Mason are separated.
Upon Mason’s return, Kennedy authorizes a mission to kill Dragovich, who has conspired with Kravchenko and Friedrich Steiner to weaponize a chemical agent known as Nova 6 for use against the United States. In this critical scene, Mason resists violent urges against the president, brought on by his brainwashed mind.
Deployment to Vietnam
Following Kennedy’s orders, Mason, Woods, and Bowman pursue Dragovich and Kravchenko in Vietnam. The three are captured and taken to a POW camp; Bowman is KIA. During this scene, Woods is forced to play Russian roulette with a revolver, delivering one of his most iconic lines: “You can’t kill me!”
Mason and Woods break free and hunt down Kravchenko, who corners Mason before Woods stabs him and jumps out a window with him just as Kravchenko pulls the pin on a grenade. Woods survives and is captured and eventually moved to a POW camp in the Vietnamese coastal city of Da Nang.
As the narrative progresses, Mason hallucinates and believes he sees and interacts with Reznov, including during a mission on Rebirth Island where Mason kills Steiner, believing Reznov is the culprit when in fact he alone carries out the assassination. This event leads to CIA handler Jason Hudson interrogating Mason about the Numbers Program.
End Transmission, Eliminating Dragovich
With Kravchenko presumed dead, Mason deploys to the final mission of the game — “Redemption” — set on the Rusalka, a Russian ship, in the Gulf of Mexico. He must stop a broadcast of the Numbers Program that will activate other sleeper agents embedded inside the United States. At the end of the mission, after shutting down the broadcast in an underwater facility, Mason encounters and drowns Dragovich.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War tells the story of a conspiracy decades in the making, culminating in the early 1980s in the heat of the Cold War. The narrative picks up about 13 years after the events of the original Black Ops, featuring Alex Mason, Frank Woods, and Jason Hudson joining forces with a new cast of operatives to unravel a global terrorist plot, including the new playable character codenamed “Bell,” who served with one Russell Adler during the Vietnam War.
Uncovering Perseus
In 1981, CIA Clandestine Special Officer Russell Adler is sent on a mission with Mason and Woods to target the leader of an Iranian terrorist organization who assisted in the Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979. This target is the first to mention Perseus, a Soviet spy and leader of a rogue organization that’s been around since the end of World War II with intentions of dismantling the influence of the Western Powers.
Upon discovering the existence of Perseus, President Ronald Reagan greenlights a mission to hunt down and kill the leader by any means necessary. With this order, Adler assembles a team made up of Helen Park, Lawrence Sims, and Lazar Azoulay.
Detonation
The team discovers that Perseus has found out about the CIA program Operation Greenlight, in which neutron bombs were placed in major European cities with the intent to self-destruct if the Soviets were to invade and take control. Perseus has acquired one of the bombs and orders a team of scientists to hack its detonation code in order to activate the remaining bombs.
Adler and Bell infiltrate KGB headquarters to try and discover the identities of Russian sleeper agents. On new information, they head to Cuba to raid the Perseus hideout, although Perseus escapes with the detonation codes with the intent to devastate Europe and blame the U.S. for the attack.
Russell, Bell, and False Memories
To help locate Perseus, Adler begins administering psychedelic drugs to Bell at the safehouse in an attempt to kickstart Bell’s memories of their time in Vietnam together. During the interrogation, it’s revealed that Bell never served with Adler in Vietnam at all. Those memories were in fact implanted to trick Bell into trusting Adler. It’s revealed that Bell was actually the lone survivor of the first mission with connections to Perseus. Now that they need to find Perseus ASAP, Adler attempts to draw out Bell’s true memories to help track down the terrorist leader.
Raiding Perseus HQ
With these original memories resurfaced, Bell leads the team to Perseus headquarters and destroys the detonation code transmitter, thus saving Europe and preventing a major catastrophe. Perseus, however, evades capture.
The Post-Launch Story Continues – Perseus, Man or Mantle?
In the post-launch Black Ops Cold War narrative, new Perseus splinter cells emerge led by Vikhor ‘Stitch’ Kuzmin — who Adler previously captured and tortured by removing his left eye during the CIA’s assault on Rebirth Island in 1968. Stitch has taken up the mantle of Perseus, showing that Perseus is more an idea than a specific person, part of what has given the shadow organization such longevity.
Stitch worked with Steiner to develop Nova 6 on Rebirth Island, and he still knows how to produce the chemical agent and how to brainwash people. Stitch captures and brainwashes Adler in an attempt to flip him to the enemy side, but Hudson and Mason are able to successfully deprogram him after Hudson grows suspicious of Adler’s actions.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Saving Woods
The year is 1986. Hudson tells Mason — who has retired from service to raise his son, David — that Woods has been captured during an investigation into a smuggling ring in central Africa. Though reluctant, Alex must save his friend and so leaves David behind to join the rescue operation. This ends up being the last time David sees his father alive.
Mason discovers that Woods has been left for dead in a shipping container on the Cubango River in Angola, Central Africa. Mason finds and saves Woods — the only one of his group to survive — and discovers that Woods had been captured by Raul Menendez, leader of the Menendez Cartel.
After recovering, Woods wants revenge on Menendez and deploys to Afghanistan to help the military in a fight against the Soviets in exchange for intel on the cartel leader’s whereabouts. They also find Black Ops series villain Lev Kravchenko here. Woods kills Kravchenko after learning that Menendez has moles inside the CIA.
The Death of Josefina
The CIA greenlights a mission to capture Menendez in his home in Nicaragua. During the chaos, Woods becomes enraged with Menendez and throws a grenade, accidentally killing Menendez’s sister Josefina in the blast. Menendez and Josefina are declared dead by the CIA, but Woods and Mason harbor some doubts about this.
Nexus One — Menendez Gets Revenge
Fast forward to 1989, and Woods and Mason are in Panama during the American invasion, seeking a target known as Nexus One. Woods ends up seeing Nexus One through a sniper scope, a bag over his head to hide his identity. Over comms, Hudson — who has been captured and forced to relay this false information by Menendez — tells Woods that Nexus One is Raul Menendez and directs Woods to execute him. Woods takes the bait and shoots Nexus One, only to discover that he has been tricked and has executed his friend Alex Mason.
Raul Menendez appears and shoots Woods in the knees, establishing his need for a wheelchair in the 1991 Black Ops 6 timeline. Afterward, Hudson sacrifices himself so that Woods may live. Now, Woods will suffer as Menendez has suffered from the loss of his sister. David, Alex’s son, is also present for his father’s death, joining Woods in the immense suffering the event causes.
Black Ops II also takes place in the future of 2025, though these events occur after the 1991 timeline of Black Ops 6.
Bios — Frank Woods, Russell Adler, Helen Park
Get more insight on three of the major characters returning in the Black Ops 6 Campaign narrative:
Frank Woods
Frank Woods ran away from home as a young kid, never to return. He relied on his innate street smarts and survival instincts until enlisting in the Marines. Woods saw action in the Korean War and afterwards became a sergeant in the MACV-SOG during the Vietnam War, then going on to join the CIA’s Special Activities Division. In 1981, he was invited by Russell Adler to join his team on a mission to stop an impending attack by the Soviet agent Perseus.
During a mission gone wrong in Panama, his knees were blown out by Raul Menendez after being tricked into executing his friend, Alex Mason. Grappling with his new life as the world enters a new post-Cold War era, Woods perseveres by overseeing his own black ops team and leveraging his skills, experience, and expertise to train a new generation of warriors.
Russell Adler
Russell Adler is a cold, calculating CIA operative called in for the most difficult assignments. His history before joining the CIA in 1966 is known only to a few within Langley. In 1967, he was assigned to the MACV-SOG unit in Vietnam to investigate covert Soviet activity. Adler participated in the clandestine CIA program MK-Ultra, which engaged in illegal experiments involving psychological manipulation.
His deep knowledge of covert tactics, fluency in Russian and German, and mastery of espionage made him a key CIA operative. Framed as a mole after the disaster in Panama where Frank Woods was maimed, Adler fled without a trace. He is now considered a person of interest by the CIA, with a capture or kill order in effect.
Helen Park
Helen Park entered Oxford at age 16. While earning a doctorate in international relations, her older brother was severely injured in an IRA car bomb attack in London, leading her to drop out of the program. She redirected her focus to study the origins and motivations of international para-military organizations, leading her to join the ranks of MI6. At MI6, she collaborated with Adler on a CIA sponsored project, afterwards joining him on an ad hoc black operations team. The interests of MI6 and the Crown always come first for Park.
Though Park and Adler respect each other, their partnership isn’t always pretty. She’s methodical by nature, and at times believes Adler is making snap decisions. The two of them played important roles in running the safehouse and planning operations in Black Ops Cold War.
The Next Chapter of Black Ops
Every sacrifice, every secret, every conspiracy led to the year 1991. In a time when the enemy has eyes everywhere, how do you know who to trust?
Check back soon for Part 2 of The Story So Far, where we’ll take a closer look at the Black Ops 6 narrative along with some new faces joining the cast. Part 2 will also share the Campaign rewards you’ll earn for progressing in the story, upgrading your Black Ops Safehouse, and completing Calling Card Challenges.
Stay Tuned to the Call of Duty Blog
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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is published by Activision. Development for the game is led by Treyarch, in partnership with Raven Software. Additional development support provided (in alphabetical order) by Activision Central Design, Activision Central Technology, Activision QA, Activision Shanghai, Beenox, Demonware, High Moon Studios, Infinity Ward, and Sledgehammer Games.
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