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The subject of this article appears in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War The subject of this article appears in Call of Duty: Warzone The subject of this article appears in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II The subject of this article appears in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III
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"We will watch Europe burn. We will watch the empire of the United States collapse under its own weight. A world with two superpowers will become a world with one. The Soviet Union. And if the leaders of this new world order squander the opportunity we have provided them... then they too will be replaced."
"Perseus"

Perseus is a Soviet-based international spy ring and underground network of rogue military operators and espionage agents. The spy ring has loosely allied with a large collective of various different anti-Western terrorist groups and criminal organizations all across the globe, with the ultimate goal of destroying the West's influence in global affairs, making way for the Soviet Union to take its place as the sole superpower of "Greater Russia". They serve as the main antagonistic faction of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

Background[]

Origin and Early Activity[]

The Perseus intelligence organization was established sometime during World War II and later, operating during the Cold War by someone going by the title of "Perseus". At some point, a rogue hardliner Soviet officer would take leadership and the title of "Perseus", seeking to abolish the Western influence present throughout the world and set the Soviet Union up as the world's dominant superpower, with ulterior motives to replace the leaders of the Soviet Union should they fail to use the opportunity presented by Perseus. Over the years, the organization would see many various rogue military and intelligence personnel and several prominent members of other anti-Western terrorist and criminal organizations join its ranks, all collaborating to further their respective agendas while simultaneously conspiring together to achieve Perseus' primary objective.

Actions being considered of such caliber that have been attributed to him and his spy network included the infiltration of the Los Alamos National Laboratory by Atomic spies under his direction and having personally stole highly confidential and detailed information from the Manhattan Project in 1943, and the Viet Cong soldiers orchestrated by Perseus that attempted to steal an American-made nuclear bomb from the US Firebase Ripcord during the Vietnam War's Operation Fracture Jaw in 1968.

Rescuing Stitch[]

In 1976, Perseus operators would raid the Petropavlovsk Gulag and extract Vikhor "Stitch" Kuzmin, the former head of Nova 6 production on Rebirth Island, who was captured during the CIA raid of the island and subsequently interrogated by Russell Adler before being extracted and locked away in the gulag by his commanding officer Lev Kravchenko for letting Rebirth Island fall. Having been receptive to Perseus' vision of Soviet supremacy and desiring revenge against Adler for stabbing out his eye, Stitch joined the organization's roster, and using his knowledge of Project Nova, began manufacturing the gas for the organization's use.

Operation Greenlight[]

In January 1981, Anton Volkov, the leader of an East Germany-based Russian Mafia and member of Perseus, discovered an American nuclear bomb from Operation Greenlight buried beneath Berlin, and hands it off to "Perseus", who sought to use the nuke to unlock the rest of the Greenlight arsenal hidden throughout Europe; with the Greenlight arsenal under the organization's control, they would detonate the nukes, holding the United States responsible for the nuclear atrocity and forcing the world into chaos, which would allow the Soviet Union to rise up and assume power.

Over the next two months, Perseus would enact their plan, firstly establishing a broadcast station for the nuclear detonations on the Solovetsky Islands while transporting the stolen nuke to an abandoned facility in Cuba for preparation. Next, Perseus's soldiers would travel to the former Mount Yamantau complex in the Ural Mountains to recover intel regarding the identities of Nikita Dragovich's sleeper cell members from the base's mainframe, before subsequently purging the mainframe to prevent the CIA from learning of this information. Finally, having identified Theodore Hastings, a scientist part of Operation Greenlight who was also one of Dragovich's sleeper cell agents, "Perseus" reactivated him and forced him and his team of scientists to travel to Cuba to reverse-engineer the detonation codes from the stolen nuke, which would enable Perseus to activate the rest of the nukes beneath Europe.

During this time period however, many of Perseus' key members and operations would be compromised and suffered a number of setbacks; a loyal Perseus agent would be betrayed by Arash Kadivar out of jealousy and left for dead, eventually being captured and brainwashed by the CIA to help flush out the Perseus organization and their motives under the alias of "Bell", Arash would be assassinated by the CIA, while a colleague of Volkov's; Franz Kraus is also killed in a shootout with them, Anton Volkov and Qasim Javadi would either be captured or killed by the CIA, and Robert Aldrich and Vadim Rudnik would either be assassinated by the CIA or left alive, which would result in either the failure or success of their missions to spread Perseus' influence in their respective countries.

In addition to these outcomes, "Bell", having become loyal to the CIA, would eventually reveal the location of the Solovetsky broadcast station, resulting in the facility's destruction and forcing "Perseus" into hiding, his plans having been foiled.

Despite this, Perseus' plan would come to fruition when "Bell", still loyal to the Perseus organization, betrays the CIA and misleads them to the Duga radar array. Depending on if "Bell" called in support or not, "Bell" will terminate their former team with the assistance of "Perseus" and his men, or be killed by Adler for their betrayal. Regardless of the outcome, Perseus will be given the opportunity to detonate the nukes, resulting in worldwide chaos and allowing the organization to move on to the next phase of their plan.

New Leadership[]

Sometime in 1983, the then leader of Perseus died from cancer. Vikhor "Stitch" Kuzmin was then left in charge, forced to take the mantle of Perseus for himself.

Able Archer 83[]

On November 9th, 1983, during Able Archer 83, Perseus operators stealthily infiltrate an American facility in the Cheyenne Mountains, and attempt to launch the nuclear warhead being used as part of the base's training simulation. Although the missile launch was aborted, the event deteriorated relations between the United States and Soviet Union even further.

Revenge against Adler[]

"Moscow will blame the Americans for Yamantau, and our work with Adler is almost done. We can proceed. What Dragovich only managed with a single subject, we shall do to entire nations. What we do in Verdansk will pave way for the rise of Greater Russia."
— Vikhor "Stitch" Kuzmin, after the destruction of Mt. Yamantau

On January 21st, 1984, Stitch begins his plot to enact revenge on Adler by firstly attacking a CIA safehouse in West Germany with a squad of Perseus operators, leaving behind a flyer to the Mall at the Pines in New Jersey for Adler to find. Baiting Adler, accompanied by Frank Woods, Zeyna Ossou and Wyatt "Bulldozer" Jones, to the mall by using a civilian target as leverage, Stitch and his men corner Adler and his team shortly after they discover Stitch's cache of Nova 6, where Stitch orders his men to eliminate the others while he personally dealt with Adler. A firefight ensued that led to Woods, Zeyna and Bulldozer being separated from Adler, leading to Adler being subdued and captured by Perseus. Adler would then be taken to Laos and tortured by Kapano "Naga" Vang, before being brought to Verdansk.

On April 19th, Perseus enters a firefight against an assault led by Karla Rivas, with Terrell Wolf and Frank Woods eventually intervening. Naga informs Stitch that NATO operatives have arrived at Laos, with Stitch ordering him to make NATO care about the supposed Nova 6 supply line run by the Golden Triangle Cartel. The NATO team eventually defeats Perseus in Laos, before discovering that the Nova 6 was merely a distraction to Adler's whereabouts - Verdansk.

On June 2nd, Stitch orders operatives Freya "Wraith" Helvig and Roman "Knight" Gray to infiltrate a Soviet base in Yamantau and steal data from the brainwashing project underdone by Nikita Dragovich to Alex Mason, as well as detonating a nuclear device to destroy the mountain. While at Verdansk, Stitch assures to the two operatives that his work with Adler is almost complete, and that Perseus will do "what Dragovich only managed with a single subject" to "entire nations", paving way for a Greater Russia. In an unfortunate turn of events for them, Adler was rescued on June 10th, sooner then they anticipated but regardless the plan was already set and still went ahead as scheduled.

On June 10, Perseus operatives are in a gunfight led by Frank Woods and some other NATO operatives to rescue Adler who successfully extracted him with the scene being recorded whom Wraith, Knight, and Stitch saw. Stitch claimed that they were faster retrieving Adler than predicted and ensured that his 'work' with him is done. Wraith asks if she and the others move forward but Stitch informs the two that satellites are interfering with their broadcast, however he states that the Verkansk test subjects are in place but they are not getting through who Wraith says they don't know what they are up to. Knight suggests that they should press the advantage which Wraith claims that another operative in South Africa is standing by, whom Stitch orders the two to make the call.

On June 26th, Owethu "Jackal" Mabuza and his men assault the Jumpseat satellite ground station in South Africa, where they take one of the technicians hostage. Jackal calls Stitch, who instructed the technician to de-orbit the satellites that would disrupt Stitch's number broadcast. Once the deed was done, Stitch ordered Jackal to eliminate the technician. With the satellites out of the way, Stitch had Wraith make a dead drop in Verdansk for Perseus hacker Kaori "Kitsune" Tanaka to acquire.

On July 23, 1984, Kitsune and a team of Perseus agents infiltrated an Echelon NATO listening station on Teufelsberg in West Berlin. Fighting her way to the control room, she managed to hijacked the system and start the broadcast as a team led by Frank Woods and Colton Greenfield arrived at the site. With the broadcast active, operatives of the team started to turn on each other, allowing Kitsune to escape. From Verdansk, Stitch congratulated Kitsune for the successful operation.

Adler's brainwashing would not go as planned, and would begin attempting to destroy Stitch's operations in Verdansk by triggering explosions across the city. After having his mind restored by Alex Mason, the two NATO operators (alongside Hudson and Woods) would deploy to Verdansk.

Death of Stitch[]

"My life no longer matters - do what you will - finish what you started on Rebirth Island. My broadcast was complete - I have changed the world, Adler - in ways you can't even imagine."
— Vikhor "Stitch" Kuzmin, before being killed by Adler.

On August 19th, Stitch visited the grave of the previous Perseus where he was confronted by Adler at gunpoint who demanded he tell Adler where Perseus was. It was then that Stitch revealed that "Perseus" was never one man, and that there had been countless others before the one Adler had been hunting. Stitch told Adler that killing him would stop nothing, and that his work was already complete. Immediately after, Adler would shoot Stitch in the back of the head, killing him.

Known Members[]

Arsenal[]

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

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