Alright, lemme add some context to this for you.
Every time you start a game of The Giant on solo you are greeted with the great and honourable Takeo Masaki telling Ultimus Richtofen that he needs to awaken the test subjects, with Nikolai stating that a chain of events must be set in motion.
So... quick disclaimer, this is probably my hardcore theorist in me burning through but feel free to correct anything if it seems wrong but let me start with this:
The Test Subjects are either
- PRIMIS
- Victus
- Alcatraz
So I'm going to go through each of these through ciphers and other bits and bobs picked up throughout the chronicles timeline.
Anyway:
The last test subject, the mexican, died but during the autopsy I have discovered the key to create the undead army that we seek. We are now ready to capture the 4 test subjects identified in Report 44.
In this, we can confirm without a shadow of a doubt that Pablo Marinus is
not one of the 4 test subjects. In fact, these 4 test subjects seem absolutely pivotal to creating an undead army, so these 4 subjects must hold some special properties in order for their importance to stand. This could easily back up Victus being helpful in creating an undead army, considering that Samuel has eaten the meat of the undead so he would certainly be a good place to start when creating an undead army.
Of the 4 test subjects highlighted in Report 44, one of the brothers has died before we could reach him in the battle. The other is still at large in the city.
Now this could refer to multiple things.
- Nikolai and Nikolai's brother. It was mentioned at some point that Nikolai's brother died in the battle of Stalingrad, and thus this statement could refer to his brother dying in the battle
- It could refer to the Alcatraz crew as the "battle" they're describing could easily be a gang war more than a battle. Also the whole "city" thing could refer to Morg City as there are plenty of references proving a connection between the MOTD crew and Morg City.
Richtofen is contacted from the House by Maxis, who warns that "The test subjects much never be allowed to be awakened, the havoc that could be wreaked upon the future by such simple minded individuals would be catastrophic.
This one is certainly interesting. At first glance you wouldn't feel like this could refer to anyone other than the Ultimus 4 or PRIMIS, but here's where things get interesting.
The story for BO3 specially has these 2 pieces of established fact in them:
Edward, as you know it is imperative you and the group find the exact versions of yourselves that I have highlighted in each universe. Only by killing that version of yourself in that particular universe at that particular moment in time will we be successful once each of you other selves are killed across all the universes. Remember, we are only immune because we opened the portal in France but I am afraid this might not be permanent. I fear there is something M isn't telling me and that there is not much time left for us.
So in this, as I've highlighted in bold, it seems as though Maxis is suggesting that we have to kill off every single version of each of the characters, so it'd be stupid to presume that Ultimus or Primis would be the test subjects because it seems to be the mission of Maxis, Richtofen, and presumably Monty to erase every version of them from existence.
The one's highlighted for being killed are the ones of utmost importance, presumably for the "procedure" Monty performs in making the children innocent again.
"Maxis, have you found the space-time coordinates for the other individuals I asked you for... It's imperative that we find them as well... You must trust me on this... For my plan to work, we need their blood."
In this we clearly establish that Richtofen requires specific subjects blood for individuals that are not any version of PRIMIS/Ultimis, and how do I come to that assumption? Well just as you read above, Maxis insinuates that
all versions of PRIMIS need to be gone for the plan to work, thus Richtofen would have had to have met these exact individual's who's blood he's requesting, which, if they were the test subjects he has on ice he would have never needed their locations.
So now we're down to 2.
Victus or Alcatraz crew?
Finally the lab is almost complete. Security measures have been put in place so the chance of detection by the Americans is very unlikely. We also have several agents embedded with the staff as insurance. We will keep the individuals in stasis, on ice to speak, and continue the specimen rotation once we finish drawing more power from the drill. Oh, I almost forgot, the sequencing for the current blood samples is as follows: SSMJABR
This cipher seems to heavily suggest that the "individuals" in question are the test subjects.
- They're in Richtofen's secret lab on ice, and thus would need waking up.
- The sequencing code heavily suggests that this is the Victis crew on ice.
Now I can easily suggest right now that enough evidence backs up the Victis crew being the "test subjects" in question. They fit the whole "the havoc that could be wreaked upon the future by such simple minded individuals would be catastrophic" previous note, but... it doesn't fit in with the timeline correctly.
Richtofen instructs Undead Richtofen to pursue Victis and recover their blood vials.
Richtofen returns to the lab under Alcatraz where he meats Victis, arriving from the Empty Earth with the Kronorium. Upon reading the Kronorium, Richtofen discovers numerous timelines documenting their fates and learns about the Blood Vials. He would later write on the page "I know now what I must do - E.R. 4/7/41." Richtofen enters a rift to acquire the blood of Sal and Finn. After delivering the blood to his younger self and recovering the blood vials belonging to Victis he returns. Victis is place 'on ice', to be kept safe until they are needed next.
Richtofen didn't even know he needed the blood vials or Victis until after Victis came to him with the Kronorium. Richtofen now knows what he knows because a different version of himself gave himself the answers he needed through these 4 characters.
This heavily suggests, in my opinion at least, that the Victis crew being awakened isn't necessarily a bad thing, and certainly not something that could be catastrophic. In fact, to add more fire that the test subjects aren't the Victis crew: Why would Takeo, Nikolai, and Dempsey need to set the events in motion to wake these 4 people from a future, parallel universe that they're not even remotely connected to?
Short answer: Victis isn't important. They're like the MOTD crew in that they're from realities that are closed off and thus their blood has mystical properties, which is why Richtofen gives Takeo/Dempsey/Nikolai (presumably) their blood vials.
So that means:
Yes. The test subjects are the Alcatraz crew, and you might be wondering how I've come to this assumption.
Let's start with the Nacht/MOTD loading screen.
https://i.redd.it/jgwb8q1xlriy.jpg - The first thing to note, this clearly shows the time jump from ZNS to Alcatraz with Primis retrieving the blood vials.
- The 4 cryogenic chambers are explicitly shown here, and can presumably be linked back to the 4 test subjects.
- None of the prisoners are wearing prison attire. They're dressed in lab/hospital gowns.
In order to fully understand why I firmly believe the MoTD crew are the 4 test subjects is that they fit everything so far.
They most definitely fit this: "the havoc that could be wreaked upon the future by such simple minded individuals would be catastrophic" as they are without a doubt the most simple minded individuals in our story thus far.
Their connection to the story seems so ultimately vague, and contrary to the timelines popular belief, we don't actually know explicitly why these 4 characters were stuck in some form of cycle, but we do know that one thing they did do was
break the cycle. Now, I've made an entire different post about this before so I won't go into too much detail but essentially:
I firmly believe that Monty was the controller of the MOTD map.
- The various lion related things around the map, including the wonder weapon, with bright red eyes - referencing Monty's gumball machines
- Red eyed zombies have only appeared in MOTD and Gorod Krovi, a firm link between them is that supposedly MOTD zombies were being controlled by "the devil" and the Shadowman specifically states that Monty is known by many names, one of those being Satan. Funnily enough, Gorod Krovi is also the only map we get load of dialog from Dr. Monty, the same map the eyes change colour of the zombies.
It would make logical sense for Monty to suggest that Maxis tells Ricthofen to never awaken the test subjects
if Monty was the villain all along. It is extremely strange that the mission the the PRIMIS crew (excluding Richtofen) are on before they are interrupted is awakening the test subjects, something that they've been told specifically not to do.
tldr: What I am proposing is that Monty does not want the test subjects to be awoken (Alcatraz crew) because they're the only crew of people who have broken free of his endless cycle.
Anyway, this is all a complete theory, with probably some holes that need filling in, but hey ho
I tried
