- "Just think, Dr. Peck: in two days, we will forge a new future for the Soviet Union."
- — Valentina overlooking the Projekt Endstation Cyclotron
Doctor Aleksandra Valentina, born Angelika Hannabelle Vogel, is a character and the tertiary antagonist featured in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Zombies mode. A high-ranking member of Omega Group serving as their Lead Scientist for Psychotronics Research, it is later revealed that Valentina has a hidden agenda using Omega Group to achieve her plan.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
- "Teach her. Be there, both of you, when Operation Baldr bears fruit. Finish my work. Make sure the staff clears out. Get to safety. Live a long life and tell Angelika her father loved her."
- — Ulrich Vogel to Lukas Kurtz, entrusting him with caring for his daughter
Born on January 6th, 1944, Angelika Hannabelle Vogel was the daughter of Ulrich Vogel, director of Projekt Endstation, and Maria Vogel. Her mother died shortly after, from complications from childbirth.
On January 27th, 1945, Vogel evacuated the Endstation facility in preparation for Operation Baldr, sending a task force in the Dark Aether as a contingency plan if Nazi Germany was losing the war before summoning them back when the time was right. Vogel also tasked Doctor Lukas Kurtz to take care of her daughter. The fate of Vogel remained unknown but on February 21st, 1945, Lukas Kurtz was captured by Soviet forces. In exchange for the names and locations of all Endstation personnel, Kurtz was given a new identity and was relocated in Moscow with Angelika who the Soviets believed to be his daughter. Lukas Kurtz became Ivan Valentin and Angelika was now Aleksandra Valentina. Valentina always saw her caretaker as her uncle, rather than her father.
When Valentina was between 5 and 6 years old, she was visited by a mysterious figure who took the form of her father, gaining her trust by calling her by her real name. Over the year, the entity would continue to appear to Valentina, even in her dreams, helping and guiding her to finish what was started with Operation Baldr to finally be reunited.
Valentina grew up working in Kurtz's factory, who refused her to pursue an academic career after witnessing what happened to her father and the events that occurred at Endstation. But every night, she would sneak into the library and read books about biochemistry, microbiology and physics.
On April 25th, 1960, at the age of 16, Valentina received a letter stating that she was accepted to the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology to Kurtz's despair. Valentina revealed that her father told her to complete his work using the exact words Vogel told Kurtz 15 years prior. Surprised and enraged, Kurtz burnt the acceptance letter. The next day, Valentina brought tea to Kurtz but denounced him for abandoning Operation Baldr. Unbeknownst to Kurtz, Valentina poisoned his tea and he died shortly after with Soviet authorities concluded he died from a heart attack. Valentina, however, would recall years later that her uncle tried to imprison her in his basement and she slit his throat in response.[1] At the university, Valentina would go to graduate top of her class.
Joining the KGB[]
On June 19th, 1970, Valentina was recruited by the KGB before being transferred to Special Operations Omega Group in April 1978.
After the reactivation of Omega Group following the announcement of the Strategic Defense Initiative by US President Ronald Reagan on March 23rd, 1983, Aleksandra Valentina assumed leadership of their Psychotronic Phenomena Research department whose goal was to study extrasensory perception including telekinesis and pyrokinesis. Omega leader, Colonel Lev Kravchenko, saw Valentina as a "straight talker", "Soviet's Soviet" and almost the daughter he never had. On March 28th, Valentina proposed that DARPA Program Manager William Peck could be turned and be in charge of Omega Group's Exoscientific Phenomena Research department.
Endstation[]
To counter the SDI, Kravchenko ordered Omega's Research and Development team to scour the NKVD and KGB archives. Valentina who has learned about the two Endstation film reels sealed within an intelligence vault from the entity 10 years before saw this as the perfect opportunity to avenge the Reich.
On July 15th, Valentina presented the found two reels of film to Kravchenko. The supernatural content of the films were immediately flagged by KGB Chairman Viktor Chebrikov for review. Following a meeting between Chebrikov and Yuri Andropov, the General Secretary, as well as other high-ranking officials of the Politburo in early August, it was proposed to weaponize the phenomena recorded at the Endstation. Two weeks later, on August 16th, Operatsiya Grobovschik, also known as Operation Undertaker, was authorized and Omega Group was given command of the operation.
On August 28th, Omega Group secured the long-abandoned facility, using a cover story about unexploded ordnance to keep people away. Valentina was eager to start and she and Peck began the examination of the scientific equipment and after two months of study the facility Cyclotron and other experimental devices were restored to operation condition. As Kravchenko dispatched additional Omega teams, Valentina stated that the new calculation would not only reopen the original rift created by the German during the war, but also open multiple dimensional breaches around the world.
On November 1st, 1983, the Cyclotron was reactivated and more breaches started to appear: in a rainforest near the Orinoco in Venezuela, in a remote section of the Namib desert in Namibia, in the Thừa Thiên Huế Province in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, near Baku in the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan and a massive breach in the Ural Mountains. With Operatsiya Grobovschik being declared a "resounding" success, Valentina was put in charge of the next step of Omega's plan: Operatisya Inversiya; a thorough study the Dark Aether and the subsequent development of new technologies and weaponry based on Aetherium including work on controlling dimensional breaches overseen by William Peck in Outpost 25 near the Vietnamese breach. Two weeks later, the rift at the Projekt Endstation facility was closed by a Requiem Strike Team during Operation Cerberus.
Valentina's deception[]
With her plan now in motion, Valentina continued to feign her loyalty to the Soviet Union while continuing her work for Omega. On January 18th, 1984, a dimensional breach appeared in a Shan People's Army outpost in Laos. Valentina traveled to the outpost with Kravchenko and Captain Sergei Ravenov. Only the leader of the SPA, Zhang Wei, was still alive. Valentina tasked Ravenov to carry out an experiment, collecting samples of brain fluid from all infected corpses and inject them in Zhang's brain. As Zhang died screaming, the experiment yielded no useful data. She also dispatched a network of agents to posts in every Soviet satellite state to look for signs of dimensional breaches.
At some point, Valentina learned from the entity the existence of a secret Endstation facility hidden beneath Berlin. In early May 1984, Valentina traveled to East Berlin and contacted a German operative stationed in West Berlin to receive updates on the site. The operative replied that the readings confirmed the "membrane was permeable" but indicated some people started to question if this was even possible. Valentina advised the operative to eliminate the doubters without losing the element of surprise. Their communications was intercept by Requiem Station Chief Heinrich Meyer who warned Grigori Weaver about the situation.
As Omega was able to control where and when a dimensional breach would occur, work on weaponizing the process started with the concept of Reality Inversion warheads capable of generating a dimensional breach as large as 500 meters and an Outbreak Zone measuring more than 800 kilometers. On May 11, Valentina attended a meeting with a list of potential targets. While she pushed for Berlin as target in hope it would help her complete her preparations, the committee selected Washington, D.C. and Manhattan, New York. Kravchenko questioned Valentina on her fixation on Berlin but was reassured when Valentina replied she hated the Germans, as Kravchenko was a veteran of the Great Patriotic War.
By the end of the month, Valentina traveled to Outpost 25 to meet with Doctor Dimitri Kuhlklay who provided her with Omega's research on dimensional membrane permutations as well as particule distortion modules, all of which were required to target dimensional breaching. Valentina tasked Kuhlklay to deliver the research at a specific address and to not be discovered by Peck.
On June 15th, 1984, following the loss of Outpost 25 after a massive Aetherium burst coming from the facility Portal Chamber. Valentina accompanied Kravchenko to retrieve, and punish, William Peck who still managed to transfer all their research to Omega HQ with the unintentional help of the Requiem Strike Team sent to rescue Samantha Maxis during Operation Lost Property.
As Peck was transferred to a missile silo in the Ural Mountains, work on the Reality Inversion warheads continued. However, on July 22nd, 1984, Kravchenko who has learned from a Requiem mole that an entity hidden in the Dark Aether posed a serious threat against the world, took the leadership of Operatsiya Inversiya from Valentina with the warheads now planned to be used again the Dark Aether forces. While Valentina was supportive in front of Kravchenko, she became worried her plan would fail after so many years. On August 16th, the shadowy figure appeared once again in her sleep reassuring Valentina that the plan was still on schedule with new instructions for her. Knowing that Ravenov was the mole who leaked intelligence document to Maxis, she decided to use him to thrawt Omega's plan. She asked Peck to deliver a report on the latest security protocols as well as the blueprint of the facility. She also chastized Peck when she learned he was talking to someone using the Dark Aether Computer as she feared her plan might be discovered. On July 23rd, Valentina developed a Communications Receiver working with the Beacon mechanism found within the Ural Mountains Outbreak Zone designed to enable communications through inaccessible broadcast frequencies.
In early September, Valentina was contacted by one of her agents, Gulnaz Azkarov, that a dimensional breach appeared in a village named Tambashat in Kyrgyzstan. She arrived 5 hours later with an Omega squad before debriefing Azkarov. Valentina ordered the soldiers to remain at the perimeter while the two women scouted the village to observe the floating orb. They got separated after trying to chase the orb but Azkarov caught Valentina talking to the orb, pausing like she was hearing replies while Azkarov heard nothing. When Valentina noticed Azkarov, the orb flew away and she made her swear to never tell anyone of what she saw. Azkarov was killed shortly after in a car accident. Valentina reported to Kravchenko that there was no evidence of coordinated action or command hierarchy from the infected, trying to convince him there was no organized invasion.
On November 16th, with the intelligence documents and Communications Receiver provided by Valentina, Maxis contacted the Requiem Strike Team in the Ural Mountains and exhorted the operators to meet with Ravenov in the Ruka's missile silo and help him thwart Operatsiya Inversiya. The targets of the warheads were changed from the US East Coast to the Pacific Ocean. After battling Legion, the warheads were launched. With the warheads at the bottom of the ocean, and Omega unable to retrieve them, Valentina's plan could continue. Five days later, Valentina was visited once again by the entity who told her that their day of victory was approaching.
Kravchenko became suspicious of Valentina after Gorev informed him that she was supposed to report to him about Peck talking to the Dark Aether Computer. Valentina, however, had already left by that time and was nowhere to be found.
Berlin[]
- "You cannot stop The Forsaken... He will consume this world..."
- — Valentina
In late January 1985, Valentina opened a portal to the Dark Aether inside the hidden lab beneath Berlin using the Conversion Machine designed by her father 40 years before causing an Outbreak Zone around Checkpoint Charlie and unleashing undead Nazi soldiers. The Director of Requiem, who knew about Valentina's plan, sent a nuclear device and a prototype robot in Berlin to build an Inversion Warhead but the nuke was lost when the portal was opened.
On February 2nd, 1985, Valentina entered the Dark Aether and met with the mysterious figure who she still believed was her father. The entity congratulated her and tasked her with one final mission: to ascend and lead their army. It was when she submitted to the entity who revealed itself as "The Forsaken".
The same day, Kravchenko arrived in Berlin with an Omega conscript unit comprised of the Requiem Strike Team who was captured 3 months before in the Ural Mountains. Forced to do Kravchenko's bidding in order to save their pilot, the Strike Team uncovered the secret Endstation lab and started building the Inversion Warhead after retrieving the lost nuke. Valentina stepped out of the portal with a new body, scarlet and crystallized similar to a Tempest. Sitting on a floating throne she created, Valentina proclaimed the dawn of a new Reich as waves of undead Nazi soldiers and other creatures started pouring out of the portal. There were, however, only the vanguard as the rest of Valentina's army and the Forsaken were still in the Dark Aether.
After a long battle throughout the Outbreak Zone, Valentina was defeated and captured by the Strike Team who strapped her to the Conversion Machine. To complete the Inversion Warhead, the team needed the essence from a specimen rich in Aetherium to refine the crystals. Valentina was killed in the process and the Inversion Warhead was detonated within the Dark Aether to close the portal and the outbreak.
Gallery[]
_BOCW.png "Aleksandra Valentina (Spectral) BOCW.png (806 KB)")
Trivia[]
- Vogel's computer password during Seal the Deal, "AHV", is a reference to her initials (Angelika Hannabelle Vogel).
- Valentina's ID badge shows her name as "Valentinova" (Валентинова) rather than "Valentina".
- Her quote "Father? Why have you forsaken me?"[2] in Mauer der Toten may be a reference to Lullaby of a Dead Man, which features the same quote as a lyric.
References[]
- ↑ Outbreak intel, S3, Omega Group Radio Transmissions, "Uncle"
- ↑ https://youtu.be/nc8aH8GtUvg?t=360
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