Derek Clifford Simmons

Through working for the U.S. Government, he was fully aware of the Umbrella Corporation and their viral research. With the government being one of Umbrella’s best customers and purchasing many of their assets, Simmons used his position to immerse Carla into B.O.W. and virus research and was pleased with the results. She was to become his bright hope for the future and remain at his side for years to come.

Whilst not in Washington, Simmons ran The Family from a secret meeting place beneath the cathedral in the town of Tall Oaks. This was a plot of land that had been in the Simmons family for generations but to the untrained eye there was nothing sinister about it. Here he chaired meetings of high-ranking clandestine individuals from other world governments, corporate magnates and military organisations, each of which had membership into The Family. Simmons firmly believed that ongoing global stability was contingent upon keeping the United States at the top of the pyramid of world power.

Sometime in 1998, Simmons hired the services of industrial spy, Ada Wong; a freelance independent contractor who had also worked for the rival company and infiltrated Umbrella’s activities at the Arklay Mansion. She conducted missions under Simmons on behalf of The Family, and he soon began to harbour a deep appreciation for her talents. Ada’s skills as a spy were unparalleled, and the missions she carried out were instrumental in his goals. He became close to her in a professional capacity, and regarded her as his equal, someone intelligent and strong enough to match his own ideals and stand by his side. Privately, he developed an obsession with her and this developed a ripple in his normally logical and unperturbed personality.

During the build up to the Raccoon City, Simmons was believed to be one of the U.S. Government officials in secret negotiations with William Birkin in order to safely extract him from Umbrella and acquire his G-Virus research data. This represented a huge gamble as such a move would effectively betray Umbrella’s trust and destroy their successful working relationship with the government that had been in force for a number of years. But Simmons viewed it as an opportunity. Ridding Umbrella of the G-Virus and their top scientist would negate the need for their services in the future, meaning the government could no longer be held to ransom to bow down to the corporation. It would also prevent G-Virus developed B.O.W.s potentially being used against American citizens in future conflicts. But when the resulting extraction mission went horribly wrong, Simmons advocated for the town to be wiped out using a prototype thermobaric missile. He chaired a special emergency committee who voted on the idea but ultimately the final decision was his and he chose to launch the sterilisation operation which wiped out Raccoon City. His ruthless streak emerged once again when it was revealed his motivation for destroying the town was not just to halt the spread of the biohazard or destroy the B.O.W.s and zombies, but instead to prevent Umbrella from getting their hands on the G-Virus. But the sterilisation operation took too long to execute, meaning Hunk had already extracted a sample of the virus for Umbrella.

Following the incident, Simmons became the legal guardian of Sherry Birkin, and authorised all manner of experiments to extract the G-Virus from her body and evaluate its effects on her. At the same time a fracture in Simmons’ and Ada’s working relationship emerged when she learned that he was behind the operation to vaporise Raccoon City. Realizing it was dangerous to keep company with such a powerful individual, Ada left his employ and never looked back. From that point on, Derek became maniacal in his plans to get back Ada. Whether it was because he felt an emotional attachment to her or because he thought she was the only woman whose intelligence could match his own was unknown. But this monomania with Ada led him to put a sinister plan into action. In 1999, he used the talents of Carla Radames to begin ‘Project Ada’; an ambitious experiment to create a perfect clone of Ada Wong. He provided her with all the research materials she needed, including samples of the G-Virus extracted from Sherry Birkin, whose daily torment continued. In order to keep Sherry sane during her constant experimentation, Simmons showed his compassionate side and allowed Claire Redfield to visit her. All this time he told Sherry and those around her that the tests were necessary to keep her safe from Albert Wesker. He also studied the Raccoon City incident as a case study and determined that B.O.W.s represented the future of warfare and would replace conventional weaponry on the battlefield. To this end, he spearheaded the government’s own clandestine weapons program and also that of The Family. He intended for his organisation to take full control of the B.O.W. underworld, therefore monopolising and controlling the very future and direction of war and conflict.

As the years went by, Radames’ experiments and research gave birth to the C-Virus, which had the ability to completely destroy and reform a human body. By 2009, over 12,000 test subjects had been used to create a replica of Ada, all without success. Becoming ever more desperate, Simmons learned that Carla herself had compatible DNA that could prove to be the match he needed. Despite her devotion and totally loyalty to him, a trait that ironically the original Ada never possessed, Simmons betrayed Carla and had her captured and injected with her own virus. This time the experiment was a success and ‘Ada Wong’ was born.

Following the confirmed death of Albert Wesker a month earlier, Simmons released Sherry out of protective custody, making her a U.S. Government agent with the pretence he could still keep her close. Sherry was the only successful G-Human on record and possessed extraordinary regenerative properties. He carefully kept her monitored whilst at the same time placing ‘Ada’ into an intensive training program that would see her act and develop a personality and skill set exactly like the original Ada Wong. Eventually, Carla became a perfect match in both body and mind, becoming his loyal subordinate. It soon reached the point where Simmons himself believed her to be the real thing, disregarding her as any kind of clone at all.

Despite Project Ada being an apparent success, there was one drawback that no researcher foresaw. Despite her transformation, Carla retained some memories of her former life that were initially supressed deep within her unconscious mind but over time slowly rose to the surface. As time went on, she recovered more of her original memory and began to burn with hatred for Simmons for what he had done for her. Whilst still posing as a loyal subject and weaponing the C-Virus under his orders, in secret, Carla abused Simmons’ trust to raid The Family’s resources to clandestinely form the terrorist organisation ‘Neo-Umbrella.’ This was spearheaded by Simmons relinquishing control of The Family’s East Asian resources to her command as a reward for her continued loyalty. Carla planned to use this organisation with the sole purpose of destroying Simmons’ ideal of global stability and American dominance by spreading chaos and destruction across the world.

All of this was done in complete secrecy and Simmons had no idea of the malevolent force growing around him as on the surface Carla continued to work for The Family in the labs beneath Tall Oaks to create Complete Mutation Species such as the Lepotica. To preserve Simmons’ trust, Carla even conducted B.O.W. field tests on his orders, such as the Marhawa Academy experiment in 2012. Throughout all this time he had no idea what she was really planning.

When his friend Adam Benford was elected as U.S. President, he promoted Simmons to the position of National Security Advisor and his main right-hand man. This move only added to Simmons’ influence and he was prepared to use The Family against Benford should the need arise. But until that time, he was still Benford’s friend and would execute his role in the government faithfully.

Following the death of Albert Wesker several years earlier, research had shown he carried a unique blood type that made him immune to most viruses. Through the far-reaching resources of The Family, Simmons also learned Wesker had fathered a son in the early 1990s that even he had been unaware of. The Family managed to track him down and identify him as a mercenary working in the Edonian Republic named Jake Muller. In December 2012, Simmons dispatched Sherry Birkin to bring him back safely to the U.S. Sherry believed this was so they could use the anti-bodies in Jake’s blood to create a vaccine for the C-Virus, but in reality Simmons planned to study Jake’s genetic make-up to further enhance the virus and prevent a vaccine from being created, leaving The Family free to use it as a weapon. To make sure the mission was a success, he also sent in Carla, unaware that she was busy plotting behind his back. The Edonia Republic was in the midst of civil war and Carla used Neo-Umbrella to infect all members of the Edonian Liberation Army, turning them all into J’avo.

This resulted in the B.S.A.A. being sent in after the government forces were wiped out. Although Sherry made contact with Jake, and Simmons agreed to his price of $50,000,000 for samples of his blood, Carla captured them both before they could escape the country and took them back to Neo-Umbrella’s headquarters in China. She reported them both dead to Simmons who at that time had no reason not to trust her.

In 2013, Simmons became angry when he learned of President Benford’s plan to reveal the whole truth to the public about the U.S. Government’s involvement in the Raccoon City incident. He believed that by admitting their part in the emergence of illegal biological weapons, it would cause others to admit the same and join together to fight bio-terrorism on a global level. But Simmons believed such an admission would destroy America’s world influence and worldwide trust, knocking them off the global hierarchy of power and destabilising the world. At first, Simmons tried to use his government position to talk the President out of it. But when this didn’t work, he put intense pressure on him using The Family. But Benford’s resolve was deep and he would not be threatened, becoming only more determined to go through with his plan. This forced Simmons to take decisive action and assassinate Benford, and he would do it under the guise of a bioterrorist attack. He even kidnapped the sister of Secret Service agent Helena Harper to ensure the plan proceeded without fault. All this led to the Tall Oaks incident of 2013 when Lepotitsa BOWs were deployed into the town where the gas they emitted led to all the populace being transformed into zombies, including the President. With over 70,000 people dead, Simmons tried to blame Benford’s death on government agents Leon S. Kennedy and Helena Harper. In a fate that echoed Raccoon City, Simmons enacted a sterilisation operation that wiped the town off the map and neutralised the biohazard. The only oddity was that an organisation calling themselves Neo-Umbrella suddenly claimed responsibility for the attack. However, just as he was toasting victory Simmons was contacted out of the blue by the real Ada Wong, for the first time in 15 years, to explain that Carla Radames was in China and had plans to destroy the world. With China under bioterrorist attack, Simmons quickly boarded a private plane to intercept her. He also discovered that Leon Kennedy and Helena Harper had faked their deaths and were on his tail. He made sure their flight to Lanshiang was sabotaged by leaving a Lepotitsa Chrysallid inside their plane.

However, shortly after arriving in China, Simmons was attacked by J’avo and infected with an advanced strain of the C-Virus. He began mutating over and over, leading The Family to abandon him and choose a successor to run their group. Derek Simmons was eventually killed on the roof of the Neo-Umbrella Quad Tower in Lanshiang by Leon and Helena. Evidence of his involvement in Tall Oaks was later uncovered and his legacy was tarnished. Many of Simmons’ accomplices in the U.S. Government lamented his death and were traitors of their own, including respected Senator Steven Air. They sold classified information to bio-terror organisations and disrupted the D.S.O. One of President Benford’s assistants was involved and other associates of Simmons such as the new defence chief and the vice-president himself may also have been involved.

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