Morgan Lansdale

After a distinguished career, he retired from active service but retained a keen interest in politics and his achievements led him to have some influence in Congress affairs. During the Raccoon Trials he complained about the need and lack of specialised agencies trained to deal with the threats of bioterrorism in the wake of Umbrella’s actions. His campaigning on this issue led in part to Congress passing the 2001 National Biological Defences Act and later the United States Government founded the Federal Bioterrorism Commission (F.B.C.). Lansdale was elected as its first Commissioner and named National Biological Defence Community Director by the National Security Council. He was now a major figure for public health and biological defence, and a man now wielding great power, but for Lansdale, it still wasn’t enough. He was also an advisor to the Global Pharmaceutical Consortium and through this role he came into contact with various representatives of Tricell Inc, who occupied a seat on the G.P.C. Board of Directors.

In 2003 following the conclusion of the Raccoon Trials and with Umbrella’s fate finally sealed, the world at large began to rest easy, hoping to close the book on what had been a nightmare five years with many people living in fear and paranoia about the proposed existence of illegal biological weapons. But before long, reports of B.O.W.s began to rise again and it soon became clear that many of Umbrella’s creations had found their way onto the world’s black markets and were falling into the hands of terrorists and rogue states around the globe. Lansdale again campaigned for action to be taken and gathered a strong wave of public support, backing his claim for stronger measures against bioterrorism. He wanted the F.B.C.’s charter expanding and his own powers extended so that he would be in a suitable position to fight global bioterrorism. His tough stance won him many favours, including the support of TerraSave official Neil Fisher, who formed a close working bond with Lansdale over many years. Lansdale came to refer to Fisher as his ‘right-hand’ man and Fisher trusted Lansdale implicitly. In later years, Fisher had a logo of a silver fox stamped onto his TerraSave binder in tribute to his former mentor. He believed in Lansdale’s mantra of the greater good by sacrificing the few to preserve the many. His misguided attempt to acquire an Uroboros sample from Alex Wesker was influenced in part by his beliefs in Lansdale’s ideals.

One of Lansdale’s major weaknesses was that he was fearful of things, even little things, and thus had to plan everything out in meticulous detail. He believed he could only remain in such a position of power if the threat of bioterrorism remained real, and now that Umbrella was gone, that threat was no longer seen as real to the public at large. Terrorists may have obtained B.O.W.s on the black market, but this was largely restricted to isolated incidents that were quickly covered-up, and the behind the scenes trading of illegal technologies and biological weaponry was never in the public spectrum. With Umbrella, there had always been that clear threat firmly in the public eye that drove fear into the hearts of the people. Now that threat was suddenly gone and people had unwittingly started to relax. Because of this, Lansdale began to secretly yearn for another major incident like Raccoon City to occur so he could demonstrate the effectiveness of the F.B.C. and prove that they needed to have even more power and authority to be successful. Although his job was to take them down, Lansdale secretly revelled in the actions of such groups as the Sacred Snakes and Il Veltro for it meant he could retain and expand his powerful position as head of an influential counter-bioterrorist organisation.

It was around this time that marine researchers had discovered a new virus inside a deep-sea fish found at a depth of 9000m in the Kermadec Trench off New Zealand. This fish displayed unusual traits through infection from an unclassified virus. Scientists of the Montpellier Marine University in France began studying this virus and mapped out the genetic structure of the fish, eventually naming this new strain of infection as the Abyss Virus. Once their research results were published, a trusted representative of Tricell approached Lansdale for his help in acquiring a sample with a proposal to study it. Because Tricell were now secretly starting up their own bio-weapons division thanks to virus information passed onto Excella Gionne from Albert Wesker, they suggested making a weaponised version of the Abyss Virus by combining it with Umbrella’s original t-Virus. Both parties saw the potential of this alliance. For Tricell it ensured they could gain a potential new weapon for marine biological weapons production, and for Lansdale it would give birth to a deadly new virus to showcase the threat of bioterrorism in a post-Umbrella world and expand the F.B.C.’s overall authority. With this informal agreement sealed, Tricell officially offered assistance from their research institute via Excella Gionne’s sole research team to help with the studies of the Abyss virus. Through Lansdale and the F.B.C. they were able to secure a number of samples.

With Umbrella recently bankrupted and their assets seized, Lansdale provided the Tricell research team with three cruise ships from Umbrella’s subsidiary company Paraguas Line to carry out their research offshore. The Queens Zenobia, Dido, and Semeramis had all been upgraded by Umbrella over the years and equipped with research laboratories, thus making them a perfect place for this classified research to be carried out in secret away from the eyes of the world.

By 2004, the t-Abyss Virus was completed and ready for testing. Also that year, the ‘floating city’ of Terragrigia was completed after 11 years of construction off the Mediterranean Sea coast. Known Italian terrorist group Il Veltro had actively opposed its development and were very vocal in their protests. Lansdale took notice of this organisation and felt they could be the perfect folly to launch a new bioterrorist attack upon which the F.B.C. could then rush in and save the day. Terragrigia was a perfect place to launch such an attack as the controversial aquapolis was the first of its type and the eyes of the entire world were gazing upon it. This was perfect for Lansdale because Terragrigia’s construction had been a joint U.S. and European venture, and governing policy dictated both territories to have equal footing during a terrorist attack, but if said attack was directly a result of bioterrorism, then the F.B.C. could step in and automatically assume complete control.

Lansdale met in secret with Veltro’s leader, Jack Norman, to discuss an alliance. He proposed giving the t-Abyss Virus to Veltro and the means to disperse it across Terragrigia via an aerial drone. He would also finance the group so they could purchase black market B.O.W.s as well as providing them with the three Queen ships to use as a base of operations. In exchange, the F.B.C would lead the defence and move into the infected zone of Terragrigia to save the day. This deal also hinged on Norman keeping Lansdale’s identity as their financier a secret from the rest of his group and anyone else. Jack Norman accepted the deal, though as an insurance policy he had his meetings with Lansdale secretly recorded as collateral should the F.B.C. Commissioner try to double cross them in the future. The only other person aware of this plan was Neil Fisher who agreed the attack on Terragrigia was a necessary evil for the greater good and that any civilian losses now would be justified by the promise of saving countless more innocents in the future.

With the plan agreed, Veltro dispersed the t-Abyss Virus over Terragrigia by using an unmanned drone controlled remotely from the Queen Zenobia and before long the whole city was declared a Level 4 biohazard. The F.B.C. began evacuation and containment procedures, but the rescue efforts did not go as planned and the organisation and Lansdale received criticism for their handling of the incident. The European Union tried to intervene but Lansdale blocked their efforts, allowing only the B.S.A.A., who at that time were still an N.G.O and led by Clive R. O’Brien, to come on board as observers. But any tactical advice O’Brien suggested was largely ignored. In the end, Terragrigia was declared a total loss and Lansdale appealed to the European Security Council to use the Regia Solis satellite to scorch the city and vaporise the infection. Because he also feared exposure from Jack Norman and Veltro, he also arranged to have the Queens’ Zenobia and Semeramis infected with the t-Abyss Virus, killing all the terrorists on board. He was aware Jack Norman was on board the Queen Dido in Terragrigia’s harbour and believed the sterilisation operation would sink the Dido and kill him. His plan seemed to work as the city was declared a total loss, the biohazard was eradicated and the Dido and everyone on board sunk to the depths of the Mediterranean. Lansdale publicly declared a victory and later revealed that his organisation had successfully disbanded the Veltro terrorist group completely. Because of this the F.B.C.’s charter and authority was expanded dramatically. Lansdale again confided in his protégé Fisher after TerraSave handled the aftermath of the incident and was pleased he remained in full support of his ‘greater-good’ rationale. However, several parties still remained critical of the F.B.C.’s handling of the incident with Lansdale himself admitting that the number of innocent lives lost was unacceptable. This discontent led to several of his operatives, including Parker Luciani, to transfer from the F.B.C. to the B.S.A.A. after becoming disillusioned with policy and Lansdale’s way of doing things. In order to keep tabs on O’Brian and the B.S.A.A., Lansdale ordered F.B.C. agent Jessica Sherawat to also transfer over to the rival organisation to act as his spy.

In the aftermath of the Terragrigia Panic, Lansdale sent research teams to the Queen Zenobia which was still at sea in the Mediterranean and isolated the infected subjects on board. There the science team could monitor the guinea pigs in a controlled environment and work on a vaccine for the virus.

Roughly a year later, the science teams on board the Zenobia reported they had successfully developed a vaccine for the t-Abyss Virus. However, once the research data was transmitted to Lansdale, he betrayed them all by sealing them on the ship and reviving the B.O.W.s stored on board from stasis. With both Veltro and the research team wiped out, no one aside from his contacts at Tricell and Neil Fisher knew the truth of his involvement in the t-Abyss Virus’ development and orchestration of the Terragrigia Panic. Lansdale also knew Tricell could never expose him without exposing themselves since they played a key role in developing the virus in the first place. He also knew Neil Fisher trusted him implicitly and agreed with his reasoning to stage the incident. He would keep Lansdale’s secret safe.

It appeared as though all of Lansdale’s meticulous scheming had paid off but he was still acutely aware that one of his own employees, Raymond Vester, had been in contact with Clive O’Brian and had reason to believe the two were plotting against him. On top of this, rumours began to surface of a possible Veltro revival after the F.B.C. received intelligence of an unverified Veltro hideout in the Finnish mountains. Most worryingly of all was reports that mutated carcasses began washing up on a beach near to the quarantined Terragrigia site in the area where the Queen Dido and Jack Norman went down, suggesting the possibility of survivors. In reality, the Veltro base was a fake orchestrated by O’Brian and Vester as a ruse to panic Lansdale into making a rash move, and this paid off when Lansdale sent a plane full of B.O.W.s to wipe the base out. He also sent an armed F.B.C. team down to the wreck of the Queen Dido but they were all wiped out by Jack Norman and several of his subordinates who had used the t-Abyss virus to survive and fight off mutation for a whole year at the bottom of the ocean. To make matters worse, Lansdale suddenly lost contact with the Queen Zenobia which had up till now remained undetected on the Mediterranean for a whole year and was the only source of the t-Abyss Virus.

He used Jessica Sherawat’s activities within the B.S.A.A. to relocate the ship and desperately tried to destroy it using the Regia Solis and wipe out any remaining evidence. He also had Jessica destroy the Queen Semeramis using explosives and tried to stall the B.S.A.A investigation by having O’Brian arrested for conspiring with Veltro. But his actions were ultimately fruitless as Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine discovered the location of the sunken Queen Dido and retrieved video evidence from Jack Norman proving conclusively that Lansdale was responsible for the Terragrigia Panic. He was subsequently arrested and forced to resign as commissioner for the F.B.C. The organisation was later disbanded and all its assets and resources absorbed into the B.S.A.A. Lansdale’s collaborators at Tricell severed all ties and left him to rot following his betrayal. Jessica and Raymond had also been secretly working for them all along and put the t-Abyss virus into Tricell’s hands.

Despite all this, Lansdale had one final move and that was Neil Fisher. As a contingency should he ever fall from power, Lansdale had passed all his ideals down to him, pressing home why Terragrigia needed to happen, despite the appalling loss of life and why the F.B.C. needed to exist and be resurrected. The B.S.A.A. were too soft in their approach, too constricted by boundaries and rules and regulations imposed on them by the United Nations. They needed a new anti-bioterrorist organisation to rule with an iron fist, an organisation like the F.B.C. prepared to take a hard-lined approach and make the tough decisions. Years later this was the genesis for Fisher’s plan to cause a large-scale incident on American soil using the Uroboros Virus, an extension of Lansdale’s belief that such things needed to happen for the greater good.

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