A blacksite in the Philippine Sea, five years of buried sins, and the night they all surfaced at once.Dark Aether
Full story spoilers for Terminus, including the ending. The Guide never spoils; this page does.
Cold War, 1980s · Requiem vs. Omega
CIA-backed Requiem, directed by an unseen Edward Richtofen, races the Soviet Omega Group across Dark Aether outbreak zones. Die MaschineFirebase ZMauer der Toten
Sources: BO6 Zombies: The Story So Far (Blizzard News) · Dark Aether Saga (CoD Wiki)
1985 · The Dark Aether is sealed
Requiem defeats the Forsaken. Samantha Maxis seals the dimension from the inside. Forsaken
Sources: BO6 Zombies: The Story So Far (Blizzard News) · Dark Aether Saga (CoD Wiki)
1985 · Richtofen arrests his own staff
By 1985, Requiem had won. The Forsaken was contained, the portal closed, and Samantha Maxis had sealed the Dark Aether from the inside. Then came the reward. Project Director Edward Richtofen had his own senior staff arrested: Grigori Weaver, Elizabeth Grey, Mackenzie Carver, Oskar Strauss.
They resurfaced as prisoners of Terminus Island, a covert garrison in the Philippine Sea that was never really a prison at all. Richtofen took over the old CIA outpost and turned it into a blacksite for Project Janus, weaponizing Aetherium for his own agenda, with Dr. Revati Modi running the bioresearch facility. And its human experiments.
1986 – 1991 · Project Janus
At the Terminus Island blacksite, Dr. Revati Modi weaponizes Aetherium for Richtofen's private agenda. Human experiments included.
Sources: BO6 Zombies story ending explained (Sportskeeda) · Terminus intel & cinematics (in-game, BO6)
Feb 19, 1991 · Breakout at Terminus
On February 19, 1991, smuggler Maya Aguinaldo cut the Requiem crew loose, with disgraced scientist William Peck in tow. Peck wanted Requiem's help hunting Richtofen. Maya had been promised help finding her brother Nathan, taken to the island. They picked the worst possible night: their arrival coincided with a full Dark Aether outbreak on Terminus.
Through the night the crew built the DRI-11 Beamsmasher, an unsanctioned side project of Janus researcher Anya Tonovsky, and uncovered what Janus had been doing to people. The worst of it was Nathan, sold to Dr. Modi and experimented on until he mutated into the Amalgam the crew is forced to put down in the Bio Lab. Maya lays him to rest herself, as an act of mercy.
Sources: Terminus opening cinematic (in-game, BO6) · Terminus cinematic & Maya's brother (Gamerant)
Feb 18, 1991 · Liberty Falls falls
The same night, an outbreak erupts in Liberty Falls, West Virginia. The other half of BO6's opening. Liberty Falls
Feb 1991 · Patient 13 destroyed
Modi's answer was scorched earth. She rigged Peck's recovered warheads to level the island, and the crew defused them in the Bio Lab with minutes on the clock. Then came Patient 13: once Owen Guthrie, a Janus scientist caught gathering evidence against Modi, made a test subject and mutated into something kraken-scale. The crew destroyed him.
In the ending cutscene the survivors lift off with Raptor One, leaving Terminus burning behind them and Richtofen still out there.
Sources: Terminus main quest & ending cutscene (in-game, BO6) · BO6 Zombies story ending explained (Sportskeeda)
1991 onward · The hunt for Richtofen
Terminus is one half of BO6's opening. The same night, on the other side of the world, an outbreak erupts in Liberty Falls, West Virginia. Terminus sets the arc's throughline: Richtofen's corruption of Requiem is exposed, and the hunt for him begins, picked up by Citadelle des Morts, The Tomb, Shattered Veil and Reckoning.
Sources: Dark Aether Saga (CoD Wiki)