Resident Evil: Chronicles of Darkness

Ever thought that Resident Evil was too good a horror game to leave to the video-game screen? Ever thought that the Chronicles of Darkness made the perfect sense as a gameline for running tabletop storylines set in the REverse? Well, this idiot sure did, and that's where this project came from.

Created with the lofty goal of creating a coherent backlog of the RE universe, providing game mechanics for its playable characters and creatures, developing a "design your own B.O.W" system and examining the potential for storytelling in such a game, both as a "purist" and by crossing over with the other gamelines in ChroD, it ran into the slight problem that the author has absolutely no head for ChroD's mechanics and has proven incapable of acquiring anyone who does interested in helping out. Still, he persists in trying to find some way to get it off the ground, so it's not abandoned yet.

The entire project as a whole can be found in this here GoogleDoc, but the stuff that has actually been written so far has been transcribed here.

Introduction: Gone Viral

What do you do when it all falls apart? When your comfortable life is shattered, when friends and family become deadly enemies and society crumbles into an orgiastic carnage, how do you survive? Can you defend yourself when your home becomes a residence for all-too-human evil?

Resident Evil: Chronicles of Darkness is a fan-made sourcebook for the Chronicles of Darknesss/New World of Darkness which explores the idea of using that gaming system to tell stories set in the world of Capcom's popular horror game series, Resident Evil.This is a not-for-profit project. All intellectual properties belong to their designated owners.

Resident Evil has, over the years, evolved into having its games partake in two seperate niches; Survival Horror (Zero, One, Two, Three, Code: Veronica, Revelations, Revelations Two) and Action Horror (Four, Five, Six). Consequently, this project will be divided between those genres, represented by the two "levels" of play; Survivor and Agent.

Survivor

Games at this level are played using the "Armed Mortals" or lower tier Hunter ruleset. Player characters may have combat related skills, and are encouraged to do so, but are still comparatively weak and out of their depth in the dangerous world around them.

• Theme: The Struggle to Survive
  • A Survivor is caught unaware when bio-terror is unleashed on their surroundings. No matter their actual skills in combat, they are out of their depths and dangerously ignorant. Every new foe is a potentially life-ending threat, and must be treated with caution. Supplies are limited to what the Survivor can find and salvage, and nothing can be taken for granted.
• Mood: Desperation
  • Survivors are outnumbered, outgunned, critically unsupplied, ignorant and in over their heads. "Sink or swim" is the order of the day, and the water grows rougher by the minute. Hope is a dim glimmer on the horizon, if it exists at all.

Agent

Games at this level are played using the upper tier Hunter ruleset or, at the Storyteller's agreement, the Deviant ruleset. Player characters at this level have been clued into the true darkness of the world around them, and have greater chances of surviving the horrors of a bio-terror outbreak.

• Theme: Man's Inhumanity Rampant
  • Agents are aware of the true evils that lie behind bio-terror, of the diseased minds that created these monsters and proceed to unleash them on the world around them. Agents are armed to survive, but they cannot be everywhere at once, and all around them is the cost in human lives and civilization engineered by men too evil to realise what they are meddling with.
• Mood: Cynical Heroism
  • Agents must bear the twin burdens of knowing that bio-terror is of deliberate human malice and the fact that they cannot save everyone. No matter how many B.O.Ws they terminate, no matter how many viral production facilities they destroy, people will die, and there will always be more to replace them. This breeds a cynical, even nihilistic attitude in many... but, at the core of it, Agents are heroes. They cannot save everyone, but that doesn't mean they will ever stop trying to save as many as they can.

Chapter 1: History of Disease

The Founding of Umbrella

The history of bio-terror is intimately tied up with a single company, the Pharmaceutical giant known as the Umbrella Corporation. Although it is not conceived until March of 1968, its history stretches back further than that.

In 1962, the European aristocrats Lord Oswell E. Spencer and Edward Ashford travel to Africa in pursuit of the legendary "Stairway to the Sun", a toxic flower consumed by the aspiring kings of the Ndipaya tribe that supposedly granted inhuman strength and longevity to one who survived consumption. They spend four years searching on and off, but it isn't until an expedition in 1966 led by Spencer and accompanied by up-and-coming biologist Dr. James Marcus, that their efforts bear fruit.

On December 4th of 1966, after three months of searching and fighting against the hostile Ndipayas, they discover a sample in the West African region of Kijuju, and unlock its secrets; the flowers are the natural hosts for a double-stranded RNA virus that ias capable of infecting a wide variety of species and acts as a highly potent non-carcinogenic mutagen.

Dealing in Death

Initial efforts to cultivate the virus on its own are a failure; the mass-cultivated flowers will not produce the virus, due to the absence of some unknown environmental factor. Refusing to be discouraged by their lack of ability to cultivate the virus at will, Lord Spencer makes plans to found a pharmaceutical and medical company, Umbrella Corporation, that will provide funding and a front for their bio-weapons research.

Despite this limitation on their stockpile, research continues into the properties of what they came to refer to as "the Progenitor Virus". With Lord Spencer's private mansion in the Arklay Mountains of America having been completed in 1967 and serving as a hidden research laboratory for the virus, Lord Spencer became obsessed with preserving his secrets. He has the wife and daughter of the mansion's architect, George Trevor, abducted and used as human test subjects for the virus. George's wife Jessica dies, but his daughter, Lisa, will survive - indeed, she will thrive, developing immunity to any virus that the researchers chose to dose her with, even as she devolves into an insane, inhuman monster.

George Trevor will ultimately be imprisoned on the estate and starved to death by early December of that year.

Umbrella is formally founded and launched in 1968. Determined to have more control over the company, Spencer secretly arranged for Ashford to be exposed to the Progenitor virus, resulting in his death. Although Edward's son, Alexander, takes his father's place, true control of the company is now in Spencer's hands.

Spencer has become obsessed with his own twisted vision, of using the Progenitor Virus to catalyse a spectacular evolution in the human race and trigger the replacement of the society he has grown to hate with his visions for a utopia. Although the virus is not yet understood enough to be used for what he desires, he already has plans, and begins a proejct to gather selective children of "superior stock" whom he hopes will be the seeds for his plan. He calls these children "the Wesker Children".

By this point, Umbrella has utilised mercenaries to violently drive the Ndipayans from their land, aided by their unwittingly thinning their own ranks by desperately consuming the Stairway of the Sun flowers in hopes of gaining superhuman soldiers. With the only source of Progenitor now in their hands, Umbrella can truly focus on exploring its potential.

Soon afterwards, an executive training center for future Umbrella employees is established in the Arklay mountains, and James Marcus is promoted to director, moving his experiments into a secondary hidden laboratory beneath the training center. This becomes just one of many Umbrella-owned facilities built within the mountains and the nearby Raccoon City.

Meanwhile, by 1969, the Ashfords have constructed another research lab in Antarctica. Two years later, recognizing Alexander's own failings to keep up in the fields of biological research, Alexander completes an experiment to clone the brilliant Veronica Ashford from some generations back, creating a perfect clone that he passes off as his daughter, Alexia Ashford, as well as an accidental male twin, Alfred Ashford.

It is in 1977 that two of the men destined to shape the modern era come into play, joining the Umbrella Executive Training Center; William Birkin, and Albert Wesker, who will go on to be the last of the Wesker Children.

It is not until January 13, 1978, that James Marcus officially announces his successes with the Progenitor Virus project. He has finally devised a virus strain that should more reliably unlock Progenitor's mutagenic properties. He proceeds to test this by infecting leeches, causing them to mutate into a swarm-organizing pack predator species. He becomes enamored with his creations, especially when they started to mimic him, as if recognizing him as a sort of "pack leader".

Harvesting cells from his infected leeches, he discovered that the Progenitor Virus had mutated inside of them, absorbing leech DNA and becoming a new species. He dubs this new creation the "Tyrant Virus", or T-Virus for short. By this point, the Training Facility has closed and Birkin and Wesker have gone on to working in the Arklay Lab, but Marcus remains in his former domain, obsessively experimenting with his mutated leeches.

Three years later, in 1981, the T-Virus has been stabilised and experiments begin in its use to create "Bio-Organic Weapons"; organisms deliberately mutated to serve as living weapons that can be sold for profit. Marcus's ground works have mostly been failures; mutant primates (Eliminators) that are too feral and savage to be used, the cowardly and mindlessly predatory mutant frogs he calls Lurkers, and cheaply produced but weak insectoid fusions called Plague Crawlers. Birkin surpasses his mentor, creating the first zombies, and the Alpha strain of the Hunter B.O.W line. To Spencer's frustration, Birkin cannot seem to make the T-Virus have more than a 90% infection rate for humans.

Feeling pressured when rumors come to them of the successes of Alexia Ashford, a University graduate and senior researcher at only ten years of age, Birkin and Wesker start experimenting upon Lisa Trevor, dosing her with the T-Virus and other experimental viruses, all to no avail; the feral mutant survives everything that they infect her with.

In 1983, Alexia and Alfred discover their true origins in the Antarctica Base. Incensed and betrayed, they capture Alexander and use him as a test subject for T-Veronica, a unique strain of T-Virus that Alexia has created by fusing with DNA taken from a virus found in an ant fossil. The experiment fails, devolving Alexander into a horrific monster that will come to be known as Nosferatu, but gives Alexia an idea. She devises a plan to infect herself with T-Veronica and then spend 15 years in cryogenic sleep, which should allow her body to more peacefully come to coexist with the virus. With Alfred's help, she fakes her death in a laboratory accident and is hidden away in the depths of the Antarctica Base.

By 1988, Umbrella is truly progressing with its plans in developing bio-mutagenic agents for its B.O.W projects. Not only has the T-Virus advanced to the point that Umbrella is working on a new "ultimate bio-weapon" project, but a European facility has created an experimental macro-parasite, the NE-Alpha Type Parasite, that they feel has great potential.

At this point, Marcus has become a dangerous embarrassment, freely killing his own trainees and attendants to provide fodder for his leeches. At Spencer's directive, Birken and Wesker lead an Umbrella Security Service team to ambush Marcus in his lab and murder him, slaughtering the mad scientist's beloved leeches and then disposing of the remains in the waste treatment plant.

However, the research into the "Tyrant" has stalled; although technically possible, only one in ten million people has the unique genetic markers required to allow for such a transformation after being infected with the T-Virus.

Desperate to progress, Wesker and Birken start experimenting with the NE-Alpha, killing a long list of human test subjects before they try it out on Lisa Trevor. To their amazement, she assimilates the parasite into her own body, consuming it. Even more remarkably, when they examine her, they find her cells have become host to an entirely new virus, one with even greater mutagenic potential than Progenitor or T. Birken becomes obsessed with this new virus and dedicates himself exclusively to it, being so enamored that he calls it the "God Virus", or G-Virus for short.

Fortunately for Umbrella, it turns out that Sergei Vladimir, a former Soviet Union Colonel turned agent for Umbrella, has the right genetic markers. Clones are grown from his DNA and are used to form the basis of the Tyrant program.

Despite what Wesker expected, approval is given to Birken, and he is given his own private laboratory below the streets of Raccoon City in 1991. Wesker chooses to resign as a researcher and goes on to become an infiltration agent.

Meanwhile, a European Research lab starts to investigate the possibility of implanting a Tyrant with an NE-Alpha Type parasite.

Wesker's infiltration agent duties culminate in April 1996, when he establishes the Special Tactics and Rescue Service (or S.T.A.R.S) Team in Raccoon City. Intended to be a heavily experienced and equipped team to deal with matters beyond the capabilities of even the Raccoon City SWAT Team, it will go on to play a crucial role in the future of Umbrella.

Viral Outbreaks

Umbrella's experiments with the T-Virus and B.O.Ws are being carried out all over the globe. It was inevitable that something would go wrong. It happened on 11th May, 1998, and ironically enough, it was caused by Umbrella's own actions.

When Marcus and his leeches were killed, one large and healthy leech survived. It crawled inside of Marcus' shattered body, and merged with him from the inside out, consuming him and assimilating his memories and knowledge. This Queen Leech believed itself to be Marcus reborn, and burned with the need for revenge on Umbrella. It attacked the Arklay Mansion Laboratory, resulting in a massive T-Virus spill and the release of multiple B.O.Ws, predominantly the zombified dobermans known as Cerberus. Soon, the entire research team had succumbed and become zombies, and the flesh-hungry killers began to spread into the wilderness around them.

Over the next two months, Raccoon City was struck by a plague of bizarre animal attacks and cannibalistic homicides. Finally, seeing an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, on July 22nd, a fax was sent to Wesker telling him to lure the S.T.A.R.S to the mansion and arrange for them to battle the rogue bio-weapons; this would provide valuable combat data and winnow out the B.O.W ranks without any cost to Umbrella itself.

On the evening of the 23rd, the Queen Leech strikes again, this time attacking the Ecliptic Express, a train bringing a convoy of new researchers and security agents intended to investigate and potentially re-open the Umbrella Executive Training Centre.

Soon afterwards, the S.T.A.R.S Bravo Team is forced to make an emergency landing nearby when their helicopter's engine fails. They discover a crashed Military Police HUMVEE in the area, which has been attacked by something; it was transporting a court-martialed soldier, Billy Coen, for execution. As the team starts examining their surroundings, Rebecca Chambers the S.T.A.R.S medic, finds the Ecliptic Express and starts exploring, only for the train to reactivate itself. She is saved from being eaten by the zombified passengers by Coen, and the two are forced to work together to survive. They ultimately crash at and explore the Executive Training Centre, until finally they find and kill the Queen Leech on the morning of the 24th.

Over the course of the night, Bravo Team members Kevin Dooley and Edward Dewey are killed by the cerberus packs, with the rest of the team being driven towards the Arklay Mansion.

Upon destroying the Queen Leech, Rebecca and Billy go their separate ways, with Rebecca heading to the Arklay Mansion to find the rest of her team and Billy wandering off into the woods to fake his death and find freedom from the false charges laid against him.

At the Mansion, Rebecca manages to unite with Richard Aiken, and they find a safe place to rest and recover. Forest Speyer isn't so lucky, being attacked by T-virus infected crows on the balcony and fatally pecked to death.

By the evening of the 24th, Alpha Team has been sent to try and find their missing comrades in arms. They too are attacked by the cerberus pack, with Joseph Frost being torn apart. When their cowardly pilot Brad Vickers abandons them, the survivors flee to the mansion. They arrive minutes too late to save Bravo Team member Kenneth Sullivan from being killed by a zombie, and start exploring. Chris manages to find Rebecca and Richard, but not before Richard has been lethally bitten by Yawn, a giant snake B.O.W. Likewise, when they find Captain Enrico in the caves beneath the mansion, he reveals that the S.T.A.R.S have been betrayed, but is assassinated.

Eventually, the surviving S.T.A.R.S find their way to the hidden lab beneath the mansion, where Wesker is revealed as the traitor. He taunts them with how their comrades have perished, and then unleashes the Tyrant - only for it to go out of control and kill him. Through sheer luck, the S.T.A.R.S manage to defeat the rampaging B.O.W; having heard on Richard's radio that Brad Vickers has returned to the area in an attack of conscience, they signal to him and set the self-destruct on the mansion. At the landing strip, though, the Tyrant revives and attacks them again; only with the aid of Vickers and a rocket launcher he had brought along in the helicopter do they manage to destroy it and flee before the mansion erupts.

When the S.T.A.R.S returns to Raccoon City, their claims of what happened and of Umbrella's involvement are laughed off. They have no evidence, and Umbrella literally owns the city. With no other choice, they try to find new evidence, even as the infected creatures from the mountains start spreading into the city, causing micro-outbreaks. By the 24th of August, Chris and Barry's investigations have led them to rumors of the "G-Virus", and so they head to Europe to challenge Umbrella at their headquarters. Rebecca leaves Raccoon City, whilst Jill makes plans to meet Chris and Barry there. Brad Vickers refuses to get involved.

By the 22nd of September, things reach a critical point. Suspecting Birkin may betray them, Umbrella sends a team of black ops agents led by HUNK to take a G-Virus sample from scientist by force. In the confusion, Birkin is shot and desperately injects himself with his own mutagen; transformed into a mindless monster, Birkin massacres HUNK's team and shatters vials of the T-Virus, which infect the water supply and the sewer's population of rats and roaches. The result is devastating to Raccoon City; a full-fledged zombie plague erupts in the streets, so that by the 24th, hordes of diseased cannibals are openly stalking the city streets. The survivors try to escape or otherwise survive as best they can.

On the 26th, the police officers try to make a final gauntlet to help the uninfected escape, but to little avail, thanks to the madness of Chief Brian Irons. Units of the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service are deployed to try and thin the ranks of the infected, but most perish in the attempt.

On the 28th, Jill Valentine, having been stranded in the city by the sudden outbreak of plague, tries to make her escape. She makes an alliance with the UBCS survivor Carlos Oliveria, only to be betrayed and attacked by another UBCS survivor, Nikolai Zinoviev. During the chaos, Umbrella deploys its prototype "Nemesis" T-103 Pursuer Type Tyrant, a Tyrant infected with the NE-Alpha Type Parasite, to hunt down and kill any and all S.T.A.R.S. Brad Vickers is slain by the beast, and Jill herself is wounded during a deadly battle outside of the Raccoon City Clocktower, resulting in her being infected with the T-Virus.

On the 29th and the 30th, as Carlos desperately retrieves an experimental anti-T vaccine for Jill, Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedy arrive in Raccoon City. Thrown together by chance, they work together to try and survive as they seek an escape from the city. They encounter and rescue a young girl, Sherry Birkin, daughter of the mutated William Birkin and his wife, Annette. They also receive cryptic aid from a mysterious Chinese woman named Ada Wong. Pursued by a T-103 Tyrant, they realize that it is chasing Sherry's locket, which contains the last known sample of the G-Virus and seemingly kills Ada, although in reality she survives and manages to escape Raccoon City on her own with the last sample of G-Virus. In the process of eluding it, Sherry is attacked by her increasingly mutated father, who infects her with G-Virus and forces them to apply the "Devil" Vaccine to save her life. Finally, they manage to destroy the horrific abomination that was once William Birkin and escape. Claire goes her own way, still determined to find her brother, whilst Leon and Sherry are taken into custody by US governmental agents.

On the 1st of October, Jill Valentine finally awakens, cured of her infection. Together, she and Carlos manage to signal to Barry Burton and kill the Nemesis, escaping Raccoon City just before it is obliterated with a missile strike.

The next major outbreak occurs in the November of 1998; on the 22nd, Commander Vincent Goldman of the Sheena Island base goes insane when he realizes that Umbrella is likely to remove him from his position after receiving reports about his brutality and inefficiency. Driven by the urge for vengeance, he deliberately causes an outbreak on Sheena Island, hoping to wipe out everyone who can report him for his repulsive human rights violations. He then sets to hunting the spy he knows has been operating the island, one Ark Thompson. He succeeds in tracking him down on the 25th, but in their confrontation, both are rendered unconscious, with Thompson temporarily rendered amnesiac. Awakening on the 26th, they stalk each other through the zombie infested streets; Goldman is killed when he unleashes the prototype Hypnos-T Type Tyrant, whilst Thompson then destroys it. Setting the island to self destruct, Thompson escapes in a helicopter with Lott and Lily Klein, the sole remaining uninfected survivors of the Sheena Island Incident.

The next major outbreaks occurs on December the 17th, 1998. Claire Redfield attempts to infiltrate Umbrella's Paris Laboratory in search of her brother, only to be captured and sent to Umbrella's private prison and military training facility; Rockfort Island, commanded by the now-quite-insane Alfred Ashford.

Shortly after her arrival, an unknown force attacks the island, causing T-Virus samples to be leaked and infecting the guards and prisoners alike, even reviving the recently buried corpses in the graveyard. Safely ensconced in solitary confinement, Claire is spared, and freed by an Umbrella guard named Rodrigo Raval, who takes pity on her. As she explores the zombie-infested island, she encounters and teams up with a fellow surviving prisoner, Steve Burnside, dodging the insane Alfred Ashford as he pursues the two through the island.

As they explore, they encounter a shocking figure; Albert Wesker. Unbeknownst to any of the survivors of Raccoon City, Wesker had received a special virus from Birkin before deploying to the Arklay Mountains, one that promised to revive him from death with superhuman strength, durability and speed. This even more inhuman Wesker gloats that it was he who attacked Rockfort Island, releasing the T-Virus, before he abandons the two to what he is certain will be their death.

But Claire and Steve are more skilled than Wesker anticipates. Nothing in their way stops them, not even the deadly mutant Gravedigger, nor the prototype Bandersnatch B.O.Ws, nor even Alfred activating the self-destruct and unleashing a T-103 Tyrant "trainer". Boarding a hidden seaplane, the duo escapes the island and flees - but Alfred, having likewise escaped in a private plane, seizes control of their plane by remote control, directing them to Umbrella's Antarctic Base.

When Rockfort Island was attacked, the survivors fled here, unwittingly bringing their infection with them. By the time Claire and Steve are forced to land, the entire population has been infected and its experimental B.O.Ws have been released. Forced to seek a way to escape, the two survivors eventually confront and mortally wound the last scion of the Ashford family. But, in his death, he manages to release his mutated father, now known as the Nosferatu, and also triggers the awakening of his sister, Alexia. Although Claire and Steve manage to slay the distorted Alexander Ashford, their attempt to flee for the safety of a non-Umbrella-owned research base in a snowmobile are cut short by Alexia, who imprisons the two.

It isn't until December 28th that Chris Redfield arrives on the ruins of Rockfort Island. Amazingly, Rodrigo Raval has survived until this point, but he is attacked and killed by the mutant Gulp Worm after telling Chris that his sister is alive. Exploring the island for clues, Chris encounters Wesker, and engages in a short-lived duel that demonstrates the mutant's new physical prowess. Losing track of each other, each makes their way to Antarctica. There, Chris saves Claire, but is too late to rescue Steve; transformed into a deformed monster by T-Veronica, the mutant almost kills the siblings, only to be distracted when Alexia interferes with a giant tentacle of biomass. Through sheer willpower, Steve manages to redirect his rage at the tentacle and save Claire, but is struck a seemingly mortal wound in the process.

Chris faces down Alexia and destroys her with the aid of the Linear Launcher, a super-weapon secretly developed by Alexander when he began to suspect the malign nature and malignant intelligence of his engineered progeny. Fighting another short duel with Wesker, the two parties escape; the Redfields back to safety, and Wesker back into hiding, taking with him the body of Steve Burnside.

The Birth of Bioterrorism

With so many of their facilities falling into chaos due to biohazard outbreaks in such a short span of time, Umbrella is haemorrhaging on a financial level. However, with the data from the outbreaks proving the soundness of their concept, they turn to illicitly selling viruses to criminals across the world, beginning the dawn of a new era in terror tactics.

Perhaps the first documented case of this occurs in the summer of 2002, with Operation: Javier. American agents Leon Kennedy and Jack Krauser are sent to South America in pursuit of Javier Hidalgo, leader of the Sacred Snakes drug syndicate. When they arrive, however, they find the village overrun by zombies and B.O.Ws.

The seeds for the Javier Incident were planted in 1991, when South American crimelord Javier Hidalgo is sold samples of the T- and T-Veronica Viruses under the suggestion that they could help save his dying wife. Although they failed to preserve Hilda's life, instead transforming her into a grotesque amphibious monster, when Javier's daughter Manuela became infected with the same disease, he put his knowledge into practice. He infected Manuela with the T-Veronica Virus and began a regime of abducting young girls, vivisecting them to provide organs to transplant into Manuela so that she would have the time to adapt to the virus rather than being overwhelmed by it. This had been what drew the US Government's attention in the first place.

In their investigation, the two agents encounter and ally themselves with Manuela, who has fled her father's captivity. During their travels, Leon explains to Krauser something on the nature of B.O.Ws and Umbrella's mutagenic viruses, talking about his own experiences in Raccoon City. Cornering Javier in his lair, the two agents and the young girl fight their way through a small army of zombified criminals and B.O.Ws, eventually confronting and defeating the mutant Hida. In the process, she cripples Krauser's arm, which he realises with dread will result in his release from service to the military.

Javier attempts to destroy the agents by fusing with an experimental T-Veronica B.O.W, the V-Complex; a massive plant that could potentially disperse the virus across most of South America. However, Manuela reveals that she has bonded to the T-Veronica in her own system, endowing her with similar flammable blood projectiles as displayed by the mutated Alexia. With her help, the two agents destroy the V-Complex and return to America.

Soon afterwards, Wesker, who had secretly observed the battle, contacts Krauser, offering him restored use of his limb and eternal battle through the power of his viruses. Krauser, already anticipating his dismissal, eagerly agrees, and soon after fakes his death in a helicopter crash.

The second major B.O.W Terrorist incident occurs on September 22nd of 2002; Morpheus Duvall, a disgraced Umbrella researcher officially blamed by the company for the Raccoon City Incident, attacks the Spencer Rain, an Umbrella-owned cruise liner, and releases T-Virus and a secret cargo of B.O.Ws aboard the ship. Once in control, he broadcasts an announcement threatening to launch T-Virus laden missiles at America and China. He had stolen the samples some four days earlier from a French Umbrella Lab.

On the 23rd, both America and China respond; US-STRATCOM agent Bruce McGivern and Chinese agent Fong Ling are deployed to the Spencer Rain, where they strive to defeat the mad agent. Eventually, they crash the Spencer Rain, conveniently close to the abandoned Umbrella facility where Morpheus worked. Although the madman doses himself with the experimental T+G-Virus, this is not enough to stop the agents, and they succeed in destroying him and his missiles.

The Fall of Umbrella

After this debacle, Umbrella is on a sharp decline. Although Lord Spencer has retreated to privacy and is still secretly manipulating things, the corporation is dying, between the financial losses and the increasing government scrutiny over its involvement in the incidents.

Things come to a head early in the February of 2003. By this point, Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine have signed on with a private Anti-Biohazard Service, which is drawn to the Caucasus Mountain region in Russia. By the 18th, they have tracked down the last of the remaining Umbrella B.O.W production facilities, manned by Sergei Vladimir, Spencer's most devoted servant. The ABS launches an assault on the factory, fighting their way through waves of zombies and other B.O.Ws as Sergei does everything possible to stop them. In the end, Chris and Jill defeat the ultimate Tyrant variant, the Tyrant Armored Lethal Organic System. Despite its computer-controlled brain, implanted armor and other cybernetic upgrades, the T.A.L.O.S is no match for the last remaining members of S.T.A.R.S.

Unbeknownst to the surviving S.T.A.R.S, Wesker has also arrived, using the chaos of their attack to make his own raid on the facility. Defeating Vladimir's bodyguards, twin specialise Tyrants known as Ivans, he then faces off against the still-loyal Umbrella leader. Despite taking the virus himself and mutating into a grotesque, Tyrant-like creature, Sergei cannot stand against Albert's speed and skill, and is slain. Albert promptly steals the data from U.M.F.-013, the last remaining repository of all of Umbrella's research and development data, and shuts the machine down. Thusly, Chris and Jill arrive to another mystery.

Some time later, Wesker provides copies of carefully selected excerpts from the Umbrella Archives to the US Government, allowing for the successful prosecution of the Raccoon Trials. Umbrella crumbles into nothing, whilst Wesker is free to enact his own plans.

A World Transformed

Although Umbrella has fallen, the world does not rest easily. The actions of Duvall aboard the Spencer Rain, and leaked rumors from the jungles of South America, prove that not only are Bio-Organic Weapons a terrible threat, but that there are individuals depraved enough to make use of them.

For this reason, there was a considerable response to try and prevent future such outbreaks. TerraSave became one of the more noticeable non-governmental human rights organizations with a focus on providing aid during bioterrorism and medical-related incidents to be born as a result. Meanwhile, the US government gave rise to the Federal Bioterrorism Commission, who had handled the Spencer Rain incident, in 2001. Independently, the Federation of Pharmaceutical Companies sponsored the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance directly to handle the selling of B.O.Ws on the black market - Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine joined this organization after destroying Umbrella's Caucasus facility.

Unbeknownst to any, the FPC has been corrupted from within; one of its primary companies, Tricell, has in fact been taken over by Wesker, who plans to secretly use it to acquire more samples of mutagens and B.O.Ws to increase his army.

The development of these organizations proved justified in the spring of 2004, when an Italian ideological movement, the "purity" obsessed Il Veltro, launched a devastating bio-terror attack on the experimental solar-fuelled aquapolois of Terragrigia in the Mediterranean. Having acquired samples of the T-Virus, they combined it with a virus discovered in deep sea specimens to create the T-Abyss Virus, which they simultaneously dispersed over the city whilst releasing swarms of the Farfarello, a Hunter strain created using T-Abyss. Over a period of some three weeks, the FBC and the BSAA were responsible for holding the line against the infected and the B.O.Ws, whilst TerraSave focuses on evacuating civilians. Eventually, the FBC orders a withdrawal and reconfigures the city's solar energy satellite system to become a deadly laser weapon the annihilates the city, apparently destroying Il Veltro in the process. The FBC proceeds to quarantine the city's ruins to prevent any possible surviving B.O.Ws from escaping and contaminating the surrounding area.

By autumn of 2004, America would be threatened again by B.O.Ws. In Spain, the madman Osmund Saddler has unearthed a long-sealed macroparasite, Las Plagas, infecting the nearby village and planning to spread its influence over the world. Wesker, still seeking control over all forms of mutagenic biological agents, deploys Krauser to become a double-agent for Saddler. Although Krauser is able to send samples of the basic plaga to Wesker, he is unable to retreve a sample of the "Dominant Strain" plaga that leads the parasite colony, even after assisting Saddler in kidnapping Ashley Graham, daughter of the then-president of the US. As a result, Wesker deploys Ada Wong to infiltrate the region and steal a sample, whilst at the same time, Leon Kennedy is deployed to rescue Ashley. The end result is that the Plaga-worshipping cult Ls Illuminados is destroyed and Krauser is killed, although Wesker still recovers a sample of Dominant Strain Plaga to add to his ever-growing arsenal of mutagens.

TerraSave's next major mission is in early 2005, when a bioterrorist attack releases the T-Virus in India. Strangely, there is no known motive for this, at first - its origins will be revealed in November, when a bioterror attack releases the T-Virus on a plane that then crashes into the Harvardville Airport, where Claire Redfield is currently waiting to pick up a young girl she befriended in India. The airport is quarantined and Leon Kennedy is sent in with a small team of agents to rescue any survivors before the US Marine Corps are sent to exterminate all of the infected.

Together, Leon and Claire become involved when a renegade TerraSave member, Curtis Miller, takes credit for the outbreak, demanding the release of information about the Raccoon City incident or threatening an even worse spill. Confronting Miller at the nearby WilPharma facility, they narrowly prevent him from destroying WilPharma's T-Virus Vaccine, but are unable to keep him from infecting himself with a sample of the G-Virus. The facility is destroyed and the G-Miller terminated with it, but then the truth comes out; WilPharma executive Frederic Downing staged the original India bioterror attack to provide an eventual market for his T-Vaccine. Claire and Leon capture the traitor and WilPharma was shut down, although secretly it was bought out by Tricell - who used it as an opportunity to recover a fragment of G-Miller from the rubble of the facility.

Also during 2005, the BSAA become involved in what will become known as the Queen Zenobia Incident. Rumors spread amongst the BSAA about the reactivation of Il Veltro, the terrorists who had caused the Terragrigia Panic. Agents Chris Redfield and Jessica Sherawat are sent into a European mountain range to investigate a possible Veltro base. At the same time, agents Parker Luciani and Jill Valentine are drawn to the lost ship the Queen Zenobia, which embroils them deep in a conspiracy. After a great deal of combat on both parties' sides, they eventually uncover the truth; Il Veltro was manipulated into the Terragregia Panic by none other than Morgan Lansdale of the FBC; he had infected the Veltro agents themselves and sunk their leaders. After encountering and killing the mutated Jack Norman, former leader of Il Veltro, they have enough proof to get Lansdale convicted.

Unbeknownst to them at the time, the BSAA has its own moles; Jessica Parker and the formerly imprisoned Raymond Vester are in fact working for Tricell, and pass on samples of the T-Abyss.

The End of Wesker

Even as he busies himself with increasing his dominance of the B.O.W market, Albert Wesker becomes increasingly consumed by the need to know just what Oswell Spencer's plans were for Umbrella. Why hasn't he fought for his company, instead allowing it to be crushed and its place usurped by Wesker's own Tricell?

Determined to find out, he eventually tracks down the Spencer Estate; though he is unable to keep the BSAA from learning this information and sending Chris

Redfield and Jill Valentine to the estate as well, he beats them there and confronts Spencer, who reveals the terrible truth. All along, Wesker has been nothing but Spencer's puppet, doing exactly what Spencer wanted. Even the unique virus that gave Wesker his superhuman abilities was nothing but a strain of Progenitor engineered at Spencer's orders and given to all of the Wesker children - Albert Wesker was unique in that he was one of only two Wesker children to survive it.

Wesker promptly kills the deranged old man, intent on usurping Spencer's dream of becoming god by ushering in a forced viral evolution of humanity. Mere moments later, Chris and Jill burst in and confront their old nemesis, an encounter that ends with Jill making a heroic sacrifice to tackle Wesker out of window to the river at the bottom of the cliff below. Three months later, in November the 23rd, Jill Valentine is officially pronounced dead after the search effort produces no sign of her body.

Unbeknownst to the BSAA, both Jill and Wesker have survived, with Wesker taking the S.T.A.R.S to a Tricell laboratory with plans on experimenting with her as revenge for her and Chris' interference with his plans. This is originally a mere side-project to Wesker, who is preoccupied with experiments in genetically engineering new forms of Las Plagas and in developing his "new genesis virus", which he dubbed "Uroboros". However, fate has a darkly ironic alternative plan.

It turns out that Jill's body is now totally immune to the T-Virus and all its strains; the experimental T-Vaccine she had received so long ago in Raccoon City, perhaps combined with the T-Abyss Vaccine she received during the course of the Queen Zenobia Incident, had created powerful antibodies in her body. This becomes useful to Wesker; his Uroboros virus is, ironically, too strong - rather than evolving "the worthy" and destroying the rest, it simply kills whoever it is used with. By experimenting with Jill's antibodies, Wesker is able to refine the Uroboros into its designated purpose.

As a side effect, Wesker develops a chemical that Tricell calls simply "P30". Theoretically, the drug is a natural super serum, simultaneously providing superhuman strength and speed whilst also dulling the will and increasing reliance and orders. The end result, superhuman soldiers who serve their commanders with utter obedience. However, the drug is imperfect; it burns out far too quickly. Though Wesker deems it ultimately not worth marketing, he does find a use for it; with the aid of a special intravenous implant device, he can turn his former enemy into his lapdog, something that he relishes.

By 2008, Wesker's plans are nearing fruition. To distract the BSAA, he begins seeding his newly engineered Type 2 Plagas into the Kijuju Autonomous Zone, as well as using the displaced Nidpaya and Sodibaya tribes as hosts for his experimental Type 3 Plagas. By December 23rd of that year, the influence of the spreading Majini is slowly becoming apparent to the locals.

The BSAA does not become involved until March 5 of 2009, when Chris Redfield is sent to assist the West Africa branch's Alpha Team is deployed to capture B.O.W dealer Ricardo Irving. With the aid of native agent Sheva Alomar, Chris begins fighting Wesker's hordes of Majini, resulting in the extermination of the Ndipaya and Sodibaya tribes. Over the course of the next few days, although the entirety of BSAA West Africa's Alpha Team, and all bar one of its Delta Team, is slain, the duo manage to kill Ricardo Irving and corner Wesker. Fighting to the heart of his secret facility, they rescue Jill Valentine and thwart his plans to saturate the world with the newly completed Uroboros. Ultimately, they confront and kill Wesker on March 7, ending the madman's dreams forever.

The Legacy of Evil

But Wesker's death does not spell the end of bioterror. In 2010, whilst the world is distracted as the Eastern Slav Republic plunges into civil war, a bio-terrorist group calling itself Neo Umbrella is founded. Its goals are the legacy of Oswell Spencer; the viral reconstruction of the planet.

In the February of 2011, both the anti-government insurgents and the government secretly purchase bio-weapons for their civil war. Leon Kennedy is sent in once again to investigate, discovering that the result has been an almost zombie plague-like outbreak of a new strain of Plagas, as well as the release of several new Tyrant models and a small horde of plaga-infected Lickers. After taking down the leaders of both sides, the US and Russia intervene jointly to destroy all the infected and forcibly end the war.

Whilst the world's eye is focused on this, TerraSave becomes involved in the

first major bio-terror incident since the Kijuju Incident; the Sushestvovanie Island Incident. It all starts when several members of TerraSave are abducted during a party and stranded on Sushestvovanie Island. Amongst their numbers: Claire Redfield and Moira Burton, estranged daughter of Barry Burton.

Sushestvovanie Island was once an Umbrella-owned lab, and was responsible for the creation of the T-Phobos Virus as part of an experiment in immortality through viral memory transfer. At the time of the Incident, the entire population has either perished or been infected with T-Phobos. Imprisoned in a old prison turned experiment ground, Claire and Moira work together to escape, but are too late to prevent one of their kidnapped comrades, Gina Foley, being brutally murdered by the Afflicted who roam the island.

Fighting their way to the surface, they eventually encounter several other abductees; Gabriel Chavez, Pedro Fernandez, and Neil Fisher from TerraSave, and a little girl named Natalia Korda, a guest of honor who was saved from the Terragrigia Panic. As a mysterious individual named the Overseer taunts them all, the group steadily shrinks; all of them have been infected with T-Phobos, and Pedro succumbs in the middle of a village during an attack by hordes of Afflicted. Gabriel manages to hotwire a helicopter and tries to escape, but is killed by the Overseer. And Neil Fisher is seperated from the group.

As they continue exploring the island, they find the sole surviving native; Evgeny Rebic, an elderly man who refuses to trust them. Eventually, they learn the awful truth; Neil Fisher sold the group out in order to try and redeem the FBC. The Overseer, meanwhile, is none other than Alex Wesker, the last of the Wesker Children. She betrays Neil and infects him with Uroboros, but Claire and Moira work together and kill him.

Although the three girls manage to fight their way to the Overseer's lair, she captures Natalia and places her into a suspended animation chamber, planning on transferring her mind into the girl's by way of T-Phobos. She then shoots herself in the head, triggering a self-destruct mechanism; although Claire manages to escape, just barely, Moira is left behind.

Rescued by sheer luck, she eventually recovers some six months later and is able to pass on the island's location to Barry Burton, who travels to the island on his own in hopes of finding his daughter. There, he meets the newly awakened Natalia and the two begin exploring together; although the Afflicted have all perished, some have mutated into more zombie-like creatures called Rotten, and horrific Uroboros-spawned mutants are now roaming the island.

Eventually, they stumble across the lair of Evgeny Rubic, dead for some time of natural causes. From his journal, they learn that he saved Moira and taught her how to survive, something that fills Barry with hope. As they continue exploring, they encounter the horrific, undead form of Alex Wesker, revived by T-Phobos due to the fear she experienced in her dying moments. Driven insane, the hag-like creature attempts to kill Natalia, ultimately resulting in a showdown in a hidden lab. There, Moira Burton makes a dramatic rescue, and with the aid of Claire, who rides to the aid on a helicopter, the last Wesker is slain, even after further mutating herself with Uroboros.

Neo-Umbrella finally begins rearing its head in the year 2012, when the Global Bioterror Attacks begin.

The first strike is on December 24th of 2012. The BSAA and Sherry Birkin are deployed to investigate the Edonian Civil War after receiving numerous reports about B.O.Ws being seen on the battlefield. Chris Redfield loses his entire squad when they are ambushed by a woman who deploys a needle bomb laced with what will become known as the C-Virus. The woman appears to be none other than the infamous Ada Wong...

At the same time, Sherry Birkin encounters a mercenary, Jake Mueller, who proves miraculously immune to the C-Virus that is rampantly consuming his fellows. Realising that he may be the world's best hope for finding an antidote, she rescues him from the battlefield. However, the two find themselves attacked by a horrific, Nemesis-like B.O.W; called the Ustanak, the hulking monstrosity chases them aboard a plane and then causes them to crash in nearby mountains. Though the duo make their way through snowy plains and abandoned mines, they are ultimately captured by the beast and brought before its master: Carla Radames. As she places them in her laboratory, she tauntingly reveals that Jake is actually the illegitimate son of the deceased Alber Wesker.

It is not until 2013 that the true scale of the Global Bioterror Attacks begins.

On June 26th, a US Navy submarine reports an attack by an unidentified entity and then goes dark. The next day, Ada Wong infiltrates the "missing" submarine, learning about a series of terrorist attacks being orchestrated by Neo Umbrella before escaping.

On June 29th, everything starts falling together.

After six months of searching, Piers Nivans and other agents of the BSAA finally find Chris Redfield; driven into the depths of despair at having to put down his squad after they were all transformed into Nadpats, the BSAA Captain went AWOL and has spent this time drinking himself into a stupor in an attempt to dull his memories. Despite Redfield's hostility, Nivans manages to coax him into coming back to the BSAA for one final mission; to stop Neo Umbrella.

Meanwhile, in the town of Tall Oaks, US President Adam Benford is about to hold a press conference in which he will release previously concealed information about secret dealings between the government and Umbrella. Leon Kennedy is present as the president's acting bodyguard. This press conference is opposed by a secret political fraternity known only as "The Family", who have intimate ties with Neo Umbrella; when one of their agents, Derek Simmons, fails to dissuade the president from his plans, he makes plans of his own.

Blackmailing CIA agent Helana Harper by threatening her beloved sister Deborah, he forces her to trigger the release of aerosolized C-Virus, resulting in a zombie outbreak that quickly claims most of the city, including the President's life. Forced together in order to survive, the unlikely pair battle their way through the subway system to Tall Oaks Cathedral, where they find one of Neo Umbrella's underground labs. They are too late to save Deborah Harper, who transforms into a horrible C-Virus mutant.

At the same time, Ada Wong is infiltrating the lab, discovering that she was hired by Carla. Realizing that the woman is herself a bio-engineered mutant, transformed into Ada's physical double, she sets the lab to self destruct and flees Tall Oaks with plans to track her to China.

Simmons immediately uses his influence to label Leon and Helena as the terrorists responsible for the bio-terror outbreak before arranging for the city to be bombed in order to "contain the plague". Ironically, catacombs created by Simmons' family generations ago prove the key to Leon and Helena escaping the city before the bombs drop, determined to reveal the real culprit.

June 30th is when things come to a boil.

Jake Muller and Sherry Birkin manage to escape from a Neo Umbrella Research Facility in China, narrowly evading the pursuit of the enraged Ustanak.

Chris Redfield and Piers Nivans lead the BSAA Alpha Team to China's Lanshiang province, where J'avo, C-Viral super-soldiers, are rampaging through the streets of the city of Waiyip. Alpha Team perishes in an encounter with the serpentine B.O.W Illuzija, leaving only Chris and Piers to continue fighting on.

Ada Wong arrives in China's Lanshiang region to find the bio-terror in full uprising, narrowly escaping death at the biological chainsaw of the psychotic Ubistvo B.O.W.

Leon and Helena's plane to China nearly crashes when a Lepotitsa, a B.O.W that secretes cloud of C-Viral zombifying gas, emerges from hiding in the cargo bay. They manage to kill the creature and bring the plane to a landing. By sheer coincidence, they encounter Jake and Sherry, and they help the duo to seemingly overcome Ustanak.

The BSAA and the renegade agents cross paths chasing "Ada Wong", in reality Carla Radames. After a tense stand-off, they form a truce; the BSAA will seek to capture "Ada", whilst the agents will go after Simmons.

Chris and Piers chase Carla all the way to her private aircraft carrier, whilst the real Ada secretly protects Jake and Sherry from the return of the Ubistvo she had thought destroyed earlier. The youngsters reunite with the agents and confront Simmons, confirming his terrorist links. Carla betrays her former master and infects him with the C-Virus, turning him into a grotesque mutant; in the struggle to defeat him, Jake and Sherry are captured again and taken to Neo Umbrella's Seabed Laboratory.

The BSAA confronts Carla on her carrier, attempting to sabotage her plan to launch C-Virus missiles at targets across the world. Although the Family betrays and murders Carla, the BSAA's attempts to stop the launch are only partially successful; they fly to the Lanshiang city of Tatchi in a VTOL, but are unable to keep one missile from impacting the city and releasing its toxic payload.

Whilst the BSAA is preoccupied, Ada infiltrates the carrier and defeats the mutated Carla when the C-Virus resurrects her, before escaping back to the mainland.

Against this backdrop, the BSAA and the agents join forces again; Leon's handler, Ingrid Hunnican, informs Leon of Sherry and Jake's capture, sending them to the Seabed Laboratory.

On July 1st, Chris and Piers rescue Jake and Sherry, but are seperated from them and forced to do battle with Neo Umbrella's ultimate C-Viral Vector B.O.W; Haos. In the battle, Piers loses an arm, but makes a heroic sacrifice; infecting himself with the C-Virus, he sprouts a new arm capable of launching deadly blasts of bio-electricity, which he uses to help Chris destroy the monster and then send his captain to safety in an escape pod away from the sinking vessel.

Jake and Sherry, meanwhile, are confronted by the still-living form of the Ustanak; aboard a runaway underground train, they finally manage to kill the creature, escaping the crumbling lab in the process.

At the same time, Leon and Helena's battle to stop the mutated Derek Simmons comes to an end, with some surreptitious help from Ada Wong. The enigmatic Chinese spy then goes on to complete her own mission; finding Carla's hidden lab and destroying Carla's legacy.

In the wake of the attacks, Leon and Helena are cleared of all charges. Despite the tragedy he has suffered, Chris finds himself revitalized and vows to continue the fight as a BSAA Captain. Jake provides samples of his blood, which are used to create C-Vaccine, and then returns to the mercenary life.

The world has survived... but still, B.O.Ws remain a viable threat. Neo Umbrella is not done yet... nor is the amoral politicking of the Family...