RadZakpak

All of Book 1 and the progress I've made on Book 2 is now available through the site through this link: https://www.callofdutyzombies.com/story/home/

It should be compatible with PC and Mobile, and will be much easier to load and read than through the Google Doc. I'll continue trying to update both sources in the future.

Just wanna say before anyone starts reading Book 2, please know that there are certain plot threads that will be spoiled somewhat from Book 1 that I have added, so I recommend for the best experience reading Book 1 through first. Thanks!

In a bunker now

Strange guns and stranger voices

This will be my tomb

- J "B"

Book 2: A Soul Alone

Prologue: Undone

Chapter 1: Danke Schoen

Der Riese Occupation Status

Chapter 2: Blue Monday

Chapter 3: The Night

@Grimmstein has made up a lovely piece of cover art for Book 1:

This comes a little later than expected, but, I finally pushed through and finished editing Version 2 of Book 1: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jiaHzygu1JByl_oaegLmcwVchoC4BHHMCkpQY-FAPkQ/edit?usp=sharing

For the list of major changes, you can check this document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LCq_i_x7HDF8RgLQOEE10QAUqGg1-7yrpVln72DsTPQ/edit?usp=sharing

I'm finally going to take a step back and leave it as is. This is the complete Book 1. And thankfully, Cold War doesn't seem to be changing much about the Aether storyline, so I'm content knowing this is pretty much the final version.

Now then, on to Book 2!

4 minutes ago, clueless said:

I'd been meaning to get better at drawing and learn digital art, maybe a collaboration between artists on the forums could make the cover arts (it'd certainly be interesting to see the artstyles mix)

If you've got any ideas, DM me on Discord and we'll see what's possible!

44 minutes ago, anonymous said:

Well sincerely gratuliere mein freund! It's so cool to see it finished now after you've worked on this project for so long. I remember being really curious that when time many years ago when I believe it was @InfestLithium who posted a sneak peak of the Book on his status, and ever since I've been catching up with new chapters and re-reading old chapters. I remember the release of the Timeline invaluated the canonity of Book 1 and Book 2 you were writing back then and I remember how you, stubborn and ambitious, overstepped that challenge and started to re-writing everything. 

 

It's both beautiful and tragedic to see the end of the two protagonist stories, Richtofen and Peter. It's like finishing every good book, you want to read more but it is over now. So I guess I should re-read the updated book now?

 

Do you have any serious plans short-term in contacting Treyarch or a book publisher? If you won't publish this book, I think I'm gonna print it myself, seal it with plastic and take it as a genuine book on my next holiday trip

Thanks for all the love and support over the years

I'm not planning on contacting anyone about it, but once I do have all the chapters updated and finalized I will order for some to be printed out of my own pocket and will ship to anyone that wants one. I think first I might want to look into commissioning some art for a cover. If anyone artists reading are interested I'd be happy to talk it through.

9 hours ago, Lenne said:

Gut Ding braucht Weile.

So I am good to read this now asap? 

Congrats rad Rad. How does it feel to have it mostly done?

 

Bin Stolz auf dich, but more importanly you can be proud of yourself. 

You're good to start. I'm at Chapter 14 right now in edits, and am doing about 2 a day. I imagine you won't be through with the first 13 by the time I'm done completely.

Also, feels good man.

In Nevada, the cactuses are tall

And the Eye of Providence sees all

So don’t get it twisted

Their demands are listed

From the Shadows, they watch you crawl

- J "B"

Chapter 45: Relentless

Epilogue: Rebirth

Well everyone, it's been 4 years. And after numerous rewrites, major life events, entire new games, and new depths of zombies lore, I can say we've reached the end of the line for Book 1 of this project: Ascend From Darkness. I'm not quite 100% finished as I am still going through and updating chapters for V2 of the book. The new link for V2 of the book can be found here. So far I've updated chapters 1-14 and foresee finishing updates by the release of Cold War. If you've already started reading the old version, and want to be up to date on what is changing, you can follow along here.

Here's to the future of this story. Let's see where Cold War takes us, and we'll be right back after these messages...

Order above all

Three loops, three sides, eye open

A well of knowledge

- J "B"

Apollo3.txt

Chapter 43: Reign in Hell

Chapter 44: Covenant

Swamp1.txt

Chapter 41: Great Tribulation

ServantB67129.txt

Chapter 42: Delusions of Grandeur

To whom it may concern

We're all going to burn

I fear I am nearing the end

My ink has run dry

I'll give the radio a try

Maybe then His hand He will lend

Who am I kidding

From where I am sitting

There is no rule left to bend

But heed my call

Read through it all

And perhaps my warning will send

- J "B"

Chapter 39: Last Disciple

Entry1474.txt

Chapter 40: Will and Testament

So concurrent with the final 8 chapters, I'm going to be working on a V2 of Book 1 to make little tweaks that I think fit better in canon, fix mistakes, remove plot threads that are unnecessary, and just make general improvements. This is gonna be needed before I can put this book out there as a more final product since I started on this version of the book all the way back in 2017 and my writing style and ideas have changed since then with many discussions and everything we've learned in Black Ops 4.

For anyone reading this that has read earlier chapters and noticed something that doesn't seem right or could be improved, let me know so I can add it to the change list. If something isn't explained enough or confusing that's very important. For right now, here are changes I plan on making, in case someone starts/started reading before V2 is done:

- Removing instances of Richtofen referring to the Shadowman as "My Lord". That was reactionary to Blood of the Dead, but I think their relationship is different from the Warden's.

- Adding more references to Maxis' Vril experiments and better explaining what that's all about.

- Making sure the zombies' eyes are always yellow.

- Adding evidence of the Illuminati to Shangri-La, giving Richtofen more reason to be angry with them and leave, for not sharing their knowledge with him. Stuff like the Illuminati writing on the gongs.

- Changing the idea that Richtofen came up with teleporter technology. The Keepers were the original inventors, and Monty seems to have influenced Maxis' interest in it.

- Adding instances to suggest Maxis has knowledge of Keepers in some capacity.

- Adding Keeper stuff back to Der Eisendrache. I originally left it out believing it to be limited to fractures, but I've changed stances.

- Mentioning "The Genesis Code" early on, something Maxis has interest in.

- Making sure Griffin Station is not given that name until Group 935 occupies Griffin Castle.

- Adding a mention when Richtofen returns to Der Riese from Shangri-La how he found an ancient teleporter there. This is the same one we see used in the Classified opening cutscene.

No word from McCain

This mission's insane

At least the war is already won

This Bell doesn't ring

Because of the King

Can't rest till the deed is done

Can't tell Tank

Can only bank

On one Deadman's Gun

- J "B"

Emergency Protocol List Addendum: Urgent

Chapter 37: Vendetta

Chapter 38: Verrückt

RE: Maxis Files

Brothers.txt

Just now, Rapt said:

Hi, sorry for the massive necro.
But where can i find the character conversations you mention here? 
Either as audio or transcript.

I looked in the Transcripts megathread but can't find them there or anywhere else.
 

I've also been searching for an audio version of the SoE conversations to make transcripts but can never seem to find them. I've found all the ones after SoE on Talam's channel, but other than that I can't find SoE. The COD wiki has transcripts for them but I can't verify how accurate they are without the audio.

A round red Secret

It's inserted Tactfully

Still won't sleep tonight

- J "B"

Chapter 35: Downfall

Chapter 36: Lost Apostle

Posting a little early

Chapter 33: Exodus

Chapter 34: Breaking Point

ZSCKVSKBKXNKLKCDKBNROCOBFOCDROYBNOBKXNYCCNUSCRSCK

Memorandum To All Research Stations

Chapter 32: "Black Cats"

2 hours ago, anonymous said:

I like the idea, but don't forget creativity flows from freedom and joy. As a reader, I'd be fund on more chapter releases, but don't work on it when you don't feel like. Writing a book should be fun, not obligated. If I may ask, is this self-motivation only lacking when you have to start, or also while working on it?

The problem is I have every remaining chapter outlined and in my head the story is finished, so actually sitting down to start to write out the detailed chapter is hard to get started. Once I get started though, I can usually get through it in a day or two. I think it's just figuring out those first few words that stops me.

Because self-motivation is not working, I'm going with a different strategy. I'm publicly declaring I will finish a chapter by the 31st of May, and then for every month in 2020 I will release two chapters on the last day of the month. If I get more than two chapters done early, I will release all of them on the scheduled day until Book 1 is done. With this schedule, I should be able to complete Book 1 by the end of 2020.

Updated several of the chapter titles, added the remaining chapters of the book to the contents. Sorry if anyone was attached to the names as they were, but I wanted to keep some of them more consistent with a theme I have going now, especially with chapters from Richtofen's point of view. 

These names shouldn't change from now on, as these are now set in stone as the final remaining chapters of the book. Looking back, it's kind of crazy how much has been written, and how long it has been since I started. But, I really really hope that I can motivate myself to finish Book 1 by the end of 2020. That would be just swell.

Chapter 30: "One Final Effort"

ServantB23626.txt

Part III: Operation Shield

Chapter 31: "Blowtorch and Corkscrew"

2 minutes ago, Losute A Wanderer said:

I tried running a casual public match PoC, +300 kills bronze escape all obj 1 relic and only got 1 tooth... does this mean non kill teeth only apply to reg?

Possibly... I've never run into that problem and I have never played casual, so that may be it.

4 minutes ago, Losute A Wanderer said:

How are all of you getting so many teeth? I’m running PoC casual getting only 3 teeth tops, no downs all challenges 300 kills... (PC)

According to the CoD wiki, you don't actually get teeth for not going down. Here is the list of all the things that give teeth:

Quote

Earn Teeth by Completing Extinction missions. Bonus Teeth are awarded for using relics, playing Hardcore mode, or helping other players complete a mission for the first time

 

Teeth are also earned by killing 300 Cryptids (regardless of difficulty), achieving ranks 2, 6, 11 and 21 for the first time, and prestiging. You are also awarded 2 teeth for successfully completing 10 challenges in one mission and 4 more for completing all challenges without failing one. You get 4 teeth for a platinum escape, 3 for gold, 2 for silver, and 1 for bronze. You are also awarded one tooth per relic used if the mission is completed. 

It's also important to note you only get extra teeth with up to 3 relics. Any more than that, and you are just challenging yourself for no extra reward. I'm by no means an Extinction expert, but the way I've just earned teeth was playing PoC public matches with three of the easiest relics on on regular difficulty. It's more fun that way IMO than existing boosting methods, and I would end up with around ~10 teeth per match depending on the competency of your teammates with challenges.

1 hour ago, anonymous said:

Okay so a guy named Nanikos posted the following on the reddit, concept art from Nick Choles who originally worked for Raven Software during the development of the original black ops. He posted these on his blogspot back in 2015 which wasn't found till today. All but his crazy 'Ox zombie' were chosen and used in one form or another, he said.

 

Dead Ops Arcade has bulls which stampede in some levels, maybe they are a holdover from that original ox enemy.

I was never aware this was in the cards, I only knew there were murmurs of DLC 5 within Treyarch. But the connection with The Giant makes sense, if true. Though I'm glad they held off on it until the next generation of consoles. I do wonder, though, what those remakes would have been like in the BO2 engine.