Friedrich Steiner

"I remember you! Vorkuta! You don't know what we did to you!"

- Steiner, pleading with a schizophrenic Alex Mason

Dr. Friedrich Steiner is a character in Call of Duty: Black Ops. He was a German scientist who created the chemical weapon Nova-6, a nerve toxin capable of killing a person in seconds.

Steiner was voiced by Mark Bramhall.

Biography
Before the war Friedrich Steiner was a genius who had earned a collection of degrees and was thus sought by the Waffen-SS for his service in the Wunderwaffen projects. His role was the creation of Nova-6, a toxin with such deadliness even the creator himself was horrified.

Towards the end of the war, Steiner belonged to the task force which was sent to launch Nova-6 loaded rockets towards the United States, but his cargo ship was crippled and trapped in the Arctic ice. As much as they tried to salvage what they could, Germany lost the war. To cut a deal for himself, Steiner defected to the Soviet Union and subsequently was captured by a strike team lead by Viktor Reznov and Dimitri Petrenko and commanded by Nikita Dragovich and Lev Kravtchenko. Under the traitorous Dragovich's orders, Steiner uses Reznov's squad for the "demonstration" of the Nova-6, while most of the squad including Dimitri are killed, Reznov and what is left of his men manage to escape amid the chaos created by a British strike team. Reznov vows revenge on Steiner for the death of Dimitri, his friend and compatriot.

Although Reznov escapes after having caused the destruction of the original Nova-6 shipment, for the next 23 years Steiner works for Dragovich to make a refined version of the toxin, which'd be Dragovich's centerpiece of conquest against US.

After his role in the creation of Nova-6 has become known, Steiner was a top-priority target for SOG. His facility in the Ural Mountains was revealed by Daniel Clarke, a former freelance chemist worked for Project Nova before his escape. It was as Hudson and Weaver reached the facility, that Steiner made contact and once again he was cutting a deal for himself: not only he told them of Dragovich's plan, he disclosed something more dire, that in 36 hours US will be hit by Dragovich's sleeper cells across several states with Nova-6. Steiner will tell them how to stop the attack only if they'd retrieve him at Rebirth Island in the Aral Sea.

But before the two could extract him, Mason beat them to Steiner and executed him, thinking that Viktor Reznov was actually the one doing the execution and achieving revenge.

Trivia

 * When Reznov first encounters Steiner,
 * he is holding a Walther P38, a returning weapon from World at War, which he presumably used to shoot the soldier which staggers out of the room.
 * Reznov later commented that, back then he was so wanted to just kill Steiner, but he was a soldier and as such, he followed orders and brought Steiner unharmed to Dragovich.
 * When Dragovich met Steiner, he complained about the resistance that the SS put up against his men, which Steiner countered that it was out of his control because the SS had orders to fight to the end.
 * Of course it'd make no difference for the POWs because the Soviets would execute them all the same
 * Reznov, Dimitri, Steiner, Kravchenko and Dragovich had a photo taken with the wrecked ship as a backdrop before they entered the ship for the Nova-6. The photo can be found at Kravchenko's office both at the underground command post and the cave compound.
 * He is the first German to be your ally in the Call of Duty series. However not if you count Richtofen in Nazi Zombies
 * It is possible that Steiner was one of the forefathers of Group 935 along with Dr. Maxis and Edward Richtofen.
 * Steiner actually has little responsibility for Demitri Petrenko's death, as the only thing he has done is creating Nova 6 and surrunder to Dragovich. While the one who ordered to kill is Dragovich and Kravchenko. It is possible that his German background and rudeness to Reznov has made Reznov vowed him as a target for revenge.