Project Janus was a faction featured in the Zombies mode of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Project Janus is also mentioned in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III via Intel and Notes, and the lobby area of its Headquarters is set to appear as part of a map in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.
Project Janus was a secret research organization led by Requiem's director Edward "Eddie" Richtofen, who created it for the purpose of researching different experimental methods to bring back his late son Samuel and his late wife Mary, the latest one being through the use of the Sentinel Artifact.
History
Origins
Catalyst
In 1981, Samantha Maxis and Grigori Weaver received orders from the CIA to carry out an assassination of a classified target at his house - the target in question was Edward "Eddie" Richtofen's. However, the intel they both received was deceptive, as it was transmitted to them unknowingly by a CIA handler named Krueger, whose true intention behind the hit was to have Richtofen's wife Mary - Krueger's former secretary - killed before she would expose Krueger for his previous illegal dealings within the CIA. As the operation commenced, Weaver was the person on location whilst Maxis remained on comms; after Weaver believed he had killed Richtofen and that he was the sole occupier of the house, he had the order to cover his tracks by burning the house down, but by doing so he accidentally burned Richtofen's son Samuel and his wife alive, killing them both. After these events, Richtofen began plotting his revenge plan.
Formation
Established around 1984 in secrecy within Requiem by its director Richtofen, Project Janus was created as a separate organization disconnected from the rest of Requiem and its work. Using his authorization as the director of Requiem, Richtofen had resources from Requiem's work allocated to Project Janus in secret, including work from Doctor Elizabeth Grey and Doctor Oskar Strauss's departments.
Berlin Incident
On January 8th, 1985, a CIA safehouse in West Berlin received a communique intended to be received by the Office of Requiem containing information regarding Project Janus. In order to preserve the secrecy of his organization, Richtofen requisitioned Klaus from Doctor Grey and sent him to the safehouse on January 27th to destroy the communique and terminate the staff stationed there.
On February 2nd, after an outbreak in the city was contained by the Requiem strike team using the resources he sent to the area in advance, Richtofen wrote a memo explaining that Project Janus could proceed unimpeded now that Aleksandra Valentina was no longer a threat and Klaus had completed his mission, adding that Samantha Maxis now posed a problem that had to be dealt with.
Operations in Liberty Falls
In late May, Project Janus began setting up a base of operations in the town of Liberty Falls, West Virginia after ten weeks of preparation. Using the cover story of a leak at the local nuclear power plant, Project Janus had the town's inhabitants temporarily relocated while they used front companies to discreetly ship supplies into the town to construct their underground installations. Additionally, an influx of new employees were hired by Project Janus, as detailed in a report received by Richtofen on June 1st.
On June 4th, after Requiem successfully captured The Forsaken and Maxis had sealed herself in the Dark Aether to defeat him, Richtofen had the entity sent to Project Janus' facility in Liberty Falls. On June 11th, Richtofen sent out a memo announcing Requiem's dissolvement, adding that Maxis was no longer an issue for Project Janus before ordering the incarceration of Requiem's members unaffiliated with Project Janus, including Requiem's department leads, who were imprisoned at Blacksite 13 alongside the Requiem strike team and their pilot Stoney "Raptor One" Maddox.
Research Outcomes
Between mid-1985 and late 1987, Richtofen recruited Dr. Revati Modi for her expertize in biotechnology, and put her on Terminus Island to work on a Cloning Project - the purpose of which was to create a clone of his late son, Samuel. Modi eventually contacted Richtofen, stating that the cloning experiment had been a success, but once he saw the clone in person he was disappointed, as the clone itself did not look healthy in appearance and was gradually deteriorating to the point where euthanasia was administered, 14 days after his creation. Desperate by seeing that Modi's biotechnology was not getting the results that he wanted and that his late son's bio-matter was depleting, he started to look into his father's - Gabriel Krafft - research, and began reading his studies on the occult, demonology and alchemy, eventually discovering something called Prima Materia and an ancient item called the Sentinel Artifact - both of which, when joined, had the power of creating and even bringing back life.
Some time later, with the funding of his benefactors, Richtofen hired Project Janus researchers to find places around the world where energy signatures would be significant enough to justify the presence of Prima Materia; one of these researchers found a thesis study made by a student named Tammy Lundberg, where she stated that Sam Colton Hall - a mansion just outside of Liberty Falls - was home to various disappearances of its different owners since the early 1800's until the mid-1970's, has since become abandoned and left the people in the neighboring town superstitious about the mansion.[1] This researcher also found that the mansion had energy signatures that matched the one's Richtofen had sent out to procure, so with this information in mind, Richtofen then proceeded to buy the mansion and use it for the study and access of Liminal Spaces that were located therein.[2]
On July 14th, 1989, Richtofen created an A.I. system called S.A.M. - short for Synaptic Algorithm Module - that was based on a snapshot of Samantha Maxis before she was sealed away in the Dark Aether, and whose purpose was to help him with his research on both Prima Materia and the Sentinel Artifact. For the next year and a half, they worked together at Sam Colton Hall and tried to understand how Prima Materia worked and how they could get their hands on the Sentinel Artifact, but had several instances of strong and at times emotional disagreements on the purpose of their research.
On February 18th, 1991, S.A.M. went rogue and created a zombie incursion in the nearby town of Liberty Falls. As a means of containment, John Blanchard, who was the chief of security of Project Janus, was ordered by Richtofen - shortly before he was teleported by S.A.M. to an undisclosed location - to secure the town by locking it down and sending a rapid response team to control it. At the same time, on Blacksite 13, ex-Requiem members Weaver, Grey, Carver, Strauss and Raptor One are broken out from jail by William Peck and his accomplice Maya Aguinaldo, and they fend off a zombie outbreak that had started there.
On February 28th, the ex-Requiem crew travelled to the Project Janus Headquarters and were faced with two possible outcomes, with them either supporting S.A.M. or Richtofen. If the players chose to support S.A.M., then the ex-Requiem crew would have to kill Richtofen - which would lead to Project Janus’ collapse, as there was no leader to succeed him and his ventures had been proven fruitless. If the players chose to support Richtofen, however, they would have to fight against S.A.M.. Shortly after her defeat, the Sentinel Artifact would teleport the ex-Requiem crew to the Dark Aether, but more importantly to Richtofen, would bring back his wife and child, thus ending his need for Project Janus to keep operating.
In the Dark Aether, the crew was teleported to a portion of the lobby area of Project Janus Headquarters, meaning that some of Project Janus elements were present in this dark dimension.
Known Members
| Name | Rank/Position | Status |
| Edward "Eddie" Richtofen | Director | Alive/K.I.A. (Player-determined) |
| John Blanchard | Security Chief | Alive/Deceased (Player-determined) |
| Ernst Duffer | Interrogator | Alive |
| Pericles Panos | Doctor | Alive/Deceased (Player-determined) |
| Revati Modi | Doctor | K.I.A. |
| Owen Guthrie | Doctor | K.I.A. |
| Althea Maxwell | Station Chief | Unknown |
| Gary Parkhurst | Surveyor | Unknown |
| Alpha Team | Various | Unknown |
| Kyle Moline | Doctor | Deceased |
| Annette Pelletier | Doctor | Deceased |
| Anya Tonovsky | Technical Officer | Deceased |
| Sean Fowler | Doctor | K.I.A. |
| Max Caldew | Maintenance Director | Unknown |
| M. McMahan | Technology Division | Deceased |
| R. Simmons | Field Operative | Deceased |
Known Departments
- Cognitive Science
- Security Technology
- Energy Research
- Research and Development
Gallery
Trivia
- Project Janus is named after the Roman god Janus.
References
- ↑ Shattered Veil/Intel "Thesis Statement" and "Serpent Mound" Audio Logs.
- ↑ Shattered Veil/Intel "A Way in" Audio Log
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