Tank Dempsey ★

"Tank" Dempsey is a character from the Dark Aether Zombies series. He appears in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in the final scene of The Reckoning and as a playable character in Ashes of the Damned and Astra Malorum in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. He is also a playable operator for the JSOC faction in Black Ops 7 multiplayer and in Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0.

Early Life In his original timeline, Thomas "Tank" Dempsey was from Liberty Falls, West Virginia, and a member of a local motorcycle gang known as the Steel Mountain Riders. Later, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and completed basic training at either Camp Lejeune or Camp Pendleton. After finishing his training, he served in the Vietnam War, which caught the attention of his universe's Grigori Weaver, who was still working for the CIA and was part of the Requiem Bureau.

Weaver ordered Dempsey to join a mission deep in the jungle, and along with his universe's Oskar Strauss and another squad, they traveled to a jungle area where they found a lost temple. As they approached, they were suddenly attacked by a horde of zombies; they tried to fight back, but were nearly overwhelmed until Weaver ordered Strauss to activate something within Dempsey. Although what exactly happened to Dempsey is unknown, the Shadowsmith Veytharion described him as having become "the vessel of a ravenous evil, summoned and bound" to him, which, despite everything, allowed him to save himself, Weaver, Strauss, and the rest of the squad from the horde.

Shortly afterward, some of his comrades hailed him as a hero, but he was deeply traumatized by the events at the temple. He deserted the army and sought refuge in the arms of his lover to escape his traumatic memory, but it was in vain. Expulsion to the Dark Aether Sometime in 1968, while Dempsey was sitting on the toilet, he was teleported to the Dark Aether by unknown means. There, he allied himself with three soldiers who had also been displaced from their worlds: Nikolai Belinski, a Soviet tank commander fighting in the 1984 Soviet-Afghan War; Takeo Masaki, a wandering ronin from feudal Japan in 1591; and Edward Richtofen, a German Nazi scientist from a timeline where the Axis Powers won World War II.

Requiem of Encounter At one point, Dempsey and his new team traveled to a mirrored version of the Janus Towers within the Dark Aether. There they found four people—Weaver, Elizabeth Grey, Mackenzie Carver, and Maya Aguinaldo—teleported into the lobby, and Richtofen greeted them. Before the two teams could meet, a mysterious stranger, calling himself the Guardian, interrupted them. He arrived and, using a totemic skull, drained their life force, leaving them at the mercy of the horde of awakened zombies. The teams managed to escape the lobby as the Guardian watched them. As Dempsey got to know the rest of the team, he developed a deep disdain for Weaver because of the events that had occurred at the temple in his universe, even though this version of Weaver was different from the one he knew. He was also attracted to Maya, who reciprocated with flirtatious advances.

While exploring the area near a rocket crash site, Dempsey found his own dog tags, which triggered memories of his encounter with the Weaver from his universe, while Veytharion taunted him. Later, he and the others encountered an Entity, who explained that the Guardian had sought them out after they had all encountered the Sentinel Artifact in their respective worlds, and that he sought to strengthen himself with their essences. The Entity further revealed that the Guardian controlled a group of ancient beings in the Dark Aether, the Shadowsmiths, who possessed their essences; defeating them would be necessary to recover their souls and memories. The group encountered Veytharion, who was imprisoned in that area of the Dark Aether, and defeated his corrupted form. This allowed Veytharion, now freed, to restore Dempsey and Maya's memories and souls. Afterward, the Entity teleported the group to a pocket dimension for temporary refuge.

This version of Tank Dempsey is that of a battle-hardened US Marine who fought in the jungles of Vietnam in 1968 with courage, sarcasm, and an unyielding will to survive. In this fragmented reality, his distrust of his new comrades and the unfamiliar environment has transformed this normally reliable soldier into the unpredictable member of the group. This Dempsey doesn't know about the existence of the Primis and Ultimis, nor their Primis and Ultimis versions; Noe is aware that there was more to the multiverse than his own. This Dempsey doesn't know about Richtofen Primis or Ultimis, he doesn't know about Nikolai Primis or Ultimis, he doesn't even know about Dempsey and Takeo Primis or Ultimis. He only knows Richtofen, Nikolai, and Takeo from the ether—his companions in this universe. He won't know what to say when they talk to him about other timelines since he doesn't even know what the MPD is.

ALIAS

Amerikaner

Knuckle-Dragger

APPEARS IN

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7

Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0

NATIONALITY

American

4G

AFFILIATIONS

Steel Mountain Riders, United States Marine Corps (formerly)

JSOC (non-canon)

GENDER

Male

STATUS

Alive

BIRTH

Before 1968

MARKINGS

Tattoos on both arms

HAIR

Blonde

EYES

Blue

Between an extra light and bright olive green, as if it were a light (life essence depleted)

SKIN

Pale and with very noticeable veins (life essence depleted)

MUSCULATURE

Tall and muscular, he is 1.83 meters tall.

TIMELINE

Dark Aether Saga