Ascension

For others uses, see Numbers (disambiguation).

For the Zombies map, see Ascension.

For the group of scientists, see Ascension Group.

"The numbers, Mason! What do they mean?"

— Jason Hudson

Project Ascension or the Numbers Program^[1] is a term used to refer to the brainwashing method used by German scientist Friedrich Steiner in Call of Duty: Black Ops with the intention of making the person into a Soviet sleeper agent. These brainwashed individuals would act as sleeper agents until receiving the code (which was traditionally broadcasted by a special radio frequency), which would trigger their brainwashing.

Ascension later appears in Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

Overview[]

The numbers code is a running key cipher which utilizes a 2006 edition of Profiles in Courage, by John F. Kennedy, as the keystream. The plaintext message was encrypted by applying modular subtraction to each letter using letters from the text (Profiles in Courage).

The number codes contained encrypted orders and were broadcast via number stations to the sleepers throughout the world mainly in the United States, including Sanderson A. in Los Angeles, California; Maynard B. in Madison, Wisconsin; Dennison L. in Atlanta, Georgia as revealed in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. The most notable sleeper agent was Alex Mason who had also been tasked to complete a mission he had been brainwashed to perform: to assassinate President John F. Kennedy.^[1].

Viktor Reznov also used the Numbers program when he hijacked Mason's brainwashing as part of a plan to enact revenge on those who wronged him. So he gave Mason the mission to kill Nikita Dragovich, Friedrich Steiner and Lev Kravchenko kickstarting the events of the Call of Duty: Black Ops campaign.

The final goal of the Numbers Program was to orchestrate an attack on US soil by releasing the chemical weapon Nova 6.

In Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 the Soviet Bunker found inside the Rook has paper notes revealing that a group of Dragovich's loyalists named Ilya, Vitaly, Filipp and Kalashnik infiltrated the United States under Dragovich orders, and were to address the situation in case the Sleeper Agents failed to execute orders, although it is unknown what happened with them after the events of Redemption as the last encrypted code sent by the numbers station in Rusalka is decrypted as: "BURN NOTICE PRIORITY ONE. EVADE CAPTURE. SLEEPERS EXPENDABLE."

Decryption[]

The cipher was decoded using the keystream was based on Profiles in Courage, which is seen on the desk of the radio operator broadcasting the numbers in the final cutscene of the game, and decipher several of the messages.^[2][3][4]

When using the cipher, every letter of the English alphabet is converted into a number 0-25, with A=0, B=1, C=2, etc.

For example, the conversion for "What do they mean" would be

The number "codes" shown in game are preceded by a word, then a number. The number was found to correspond a page in Profiles in Courage. For example, one of the objectives in Revelations reads as

Echelon 3 24 20 12 19 17 17 22 19 23 19 4 0 7 6 7 19 10 12 16 17 6 14 4 3 17 24 20 13 24 8 16 17 1 24 9 21 15 0 5 15 4 4 23 6 11 25 14 4 20 4 9 14 18 12 8 7 21 6 4 21 7 21 4 2 14 3 14 7 18 13 6 22 16 6 1 21 21 15 3 5 24 9 11 2 10 5 21 4 20 11 19 12 5 12 13 12 5 17 19 3 14 21 12 15 17 7 7 2 2 21 1 10 22 13 5

The 3rd page of Profiles in Courage reads as

“Walter Lippmann, after nearly half a century of careful observations, rendered in his recent book a harsh judgement both on the politician…”

The letters from the keystream were similarly converted to numbers

The letters of the keystream are then subtracted from the cipher text

These numbers, if converted back via the 0-25 read as

The entire message reads as

"CUBAN ALLIES AUTHORIZE CONSTRUCTION OF PERMANENT BROADCAST STATION RUSALKA. GULF OF MEXICO. PROJECT NOVA INITIATED. AWAIT INSTRUCTIONS."

Other messages in game[]

Deciphering of other number sequences in the game and emails produce

Echelon 2 1 12 24 4 8 20 1 5 2 18 16 6 21 14 21 19 21 9 1 (email from Weaver to Hudson)

keystream from page 2 "millions of [m] readers not so many...”

PENTAGON ONE PROSPERO (the first pass-phrase used by McNamara when entering the Pentagon in U.S.D.D.)

Echelon 9 8 11 17 1 17 7 18 24 1 0 19 18 5 1 11 15 (same email from as above)

keystream from page 19 "their beliefs; others..."

PENTAGON TWO ARIEL (the second pass-phrase used)

Echelon 8 8 18 16 19 24 25 21 17 21 14 17 15 15 22 11 8 18 5 5 12 (same email as above)

keystream from page 17 "Today the challenge of political..."

PENTAGON THREE SYCORAX (the third pass-phrase used)

Echelon 5 21 0 8 18 15 14 7 21 16 23 9 14 23 0 6 18 4 (an email from jtrent to Hudson)

keystream from page 7 "himself, he is also obligated to consider..."

OSWALD COMPROMISED

Ascension 8 12 11 20 3 5 16 6 17 14 1 12 19 1 0 6 12 16 21 24 8 25 22 1 17 19 4 22 5 17 20 24 3 17 7 7 21 14 15 21 22 5 16 7 22 12 22 22 23 24 22 12 14 1 4 22 17 17 1 23 5 (heard during Redemption, just prior to confronting Dragovich)

keystream from page ~120??? "Majority was constitutionally required to accomplish their major ambition..."

ALL POINTS: BURN NOTICE PRIORITY ONE. EVADE CAPTURE. SLEEPERS EXPENDABLE.

Ascension 19 9 6 6 7 11 3 10 17 7 13 10 13 8 11 (heard during U.S.D.D., walking into the situation room to meet JFK)

keystream from page ~110??? "[Houston pr] essed hard on these grounds..."

PROCEED TO TARGET

Ascension 7 2 11 11 23 8 17 11 14 18 25 13 15 24 11 2 10 16 15 17 17 5 13 8 4 3 9 11 (heard during Crash Site, while investigating the interior of the plane)

keystream from page 13 "already been described. Even if I...."

CAUTION: NOVA MUTATION OBSERVED

Ascension 5 7 19 3 22 2 21 17 11 11 17 3 4 0 1 14 4 20 9 12 9 15 18 21 12 6 19 9 0 22 5 21 1 16 7 24 8 0 25 4 25 0 19 2 5 19 25 15 5 18 6 14 16 17 3 0 8 25 (heard at the beginning of the mission in Numbers)

keystream from page 107 "his honest opinion of the secessionist leader, Houston replied 'He has all the..."

ALL POINTS: DOWN TARGET CLARKE. PRIORITY ONE. AWAIT FINAL COORDINATES

Ascension 7 15 1 2 19 7 25 6 13 6 7 15 14 0 11 24 11 1 7 19 20 10 14 2 3 19 0 8 11 22 21 5 17 17 0 10 2 23 1 8 11 25 22 9 4 12 9 23 1 12 0 12 16 6 12 8 4 1 6 2 10 2 1 24 18 10 15 9 13 18 14 11 11 2 14 23 3 17 24 17 21 2 15 4 5 7 13 4 24 6 3 4 24 1 9 23 17 10 2 10 23 24 14 5 25 (email from Weaver to Hudson)

keystream from page 120??? "[s]enators. And so it went…it was a plutocratic feudalism…eminently respectable. The collar of any great financial interest was worn in pride."

LOCATION: TEXAS SCHOOL BOOK DEPOSITORY, SIXTH FLOOR. SIX POINT FIVE MM CARCANO RIFLE. DALLAS DEALEY PLAZA. ELEVEN TWENTY SECOND

Ascension 1 23 9 12 3 13 5 9 22 21 0 21 10 15 5 17 12 21 18 8 5 13 22 10 2 11 5 11 8 9 19 23 2 14 17 10 7 15 7 12 21 25 16 25 0 23 12 23 13 22 8 9 25 4 20 19 11 14 24 17 9 21 0 2 16 16 1 22 1 20 22 22 25 0 15 1 1 22 17 (an objective in Revelations)

keystream from page 101 "[der] ision of their policies as he [c] reveled in the exercise of the sharp tongue which e the dignitie [s]..." (c needed to be added between "he" and "reveled" to correctly decipher it)

PREPARE DOWN TARGET: KENNEDY, JOHN FITZGERALD. PRIORITY SUPERSEDES ALL PREVIOUS INSTRUCTION

Ascension 9 18 8 23 8 3 8 22 15 21 17 6 16 1 7 8 19 10 22 19 23 14 17 14 22 0 12 8 8 10 7 1 1 22 (objective in Revelations)

keystream from page 119 "before the next meeting of congress. Not o[ne]..."

RESUMED DIRECTIVE PROGRAMMING. RESPOND.

There is a last number code that hasn't been decrypted yet:

9 19 18 4 6 21 17 14 9 19 8 24 17 24 5 13 11 20 15 21 24 11 9 12 8 20 21 10 16 23 4 22 21 4 0 14 (Objective in Revelations)

References[]