Tricell

Travis Trading went on to exploit the information contained within the Natural History Conspectus in the years to come. Company outposts sprang up all over Africa, mining for precious metals and developing oil and natural gas fields. Profits soared. By the end of the 19th Century, Travis Trading had exploited all the major mineral resources of Africa. These operations formed the basis of Tricell’s natural resources development division. By the mid-20th Century, they had begun to actively collect samples of plants, animals, and insects and Henry’s books were instrumental in guiding these endeavours. The collected specimens obtained from the African fauna were used in pharmaceutical research, and before long that research brought commercial success and the subsequent founding of an independent pharmaceuticals division. Travis Trading was the basis for the shipping division and the natural resources development division was born from the information contained in Henry’s journals. In the 1960’s all three of these divisions were reorganised and brought together under the conglomerate banner Tricell Inc. Interestingly enough, a previously touted name for the corporation was ‘Seashell’ and even to this day, the letter ‘S’ is used as a reference word for Tricell when dealing with less legitimate business ventures.

The creation of Tricell allowed each of its three divisions to focus on all their efforts with laser-like efficiency. Whilst there is definitely an overlap between the divisions, such as the pharmaceutical division using the shipping division to receive materials mined by the natural resource development division, each were considered its own individual company. Resources were shared when necessary, and employees of one company had at best, limited access to the other two companies. As the Travis family line died off, the corporation was placed into trusted hands and those with ties to the original founding family. This included the Gionnes and they were able to impose themselves within influential company positions.

Throughout the first 30 years of their inception, Tricell slowly expanded their influence across the globe, but remained in the shadows of larger, more prominent corporations such as Umbrella. In the late 1980’s Tricell made plans to construct a large oil field and processing plant in the marshlands of Kijuju, an area inhabited for generations by the peaceful Sodibayan tribe. Using dirty tactics, Tricell representatives tricked the Sodibayans into signing away their land, forcing them deeper into the marshlands. The Sodibayans had no choice to but to concede to the mighty corporate giant and built a new home in the swamplands. Not without compassion, Tricell employed workers to construct a gondola that allowed the Sodibayans safe passage across the swamp and the company also provided foreign provisions such as medicine and alcohol.

At the turn of the millennium, Tricell entered the 21st Century as a very reputable firm. They had expanded and operated from five main global divisions; Tricell Europe. Tricell Americas, Tricell Asia-Pacific, Tricell Africa and Tricell Middle-East. One of their primary headquarters was located on an idyllic island in the Mediterranean Sea. Like Umbrella, they had a seat on the Board of the Global Pharmaceutical Consortium and developed influential political ties and close relations with many influential figures, including G.P.C. advisor and F.B.C. Director Morgan Lansdale.

Following Umbrella’s bankruptcy in 2003, Albert Wesker made discreet inquiries with Tricell about a possible alliance whilst still working for the rival company. He approached an ambitious young woman called Excella Gionne and provided her with information on the t-Virus and Umbrella’s bioweapons data from the stolen archives he’d acquired from the UMF-013. This information allowed Excella to begin climbing the corporate ladder in order to reach a position of power within Tricell that would be beneficial to Wesker. For the company as a whole, it was an invitation to join the lucrative, clandestine bio-weapons markets and potentially take over where Umbrella left off. Using this data, they began their own B.O.W. research and through Morgan Lansdale, they gained access to the Abyss Virus; a newly discovered strain infecting a deep-water fish lurking deep within the Kermadec Trench. The infected fish were captured by scientists from the Montpellier Marine University of Science for study and genetic mapping. Tricell wanted to study this new virus for the purposes of creating a new marine-based biological weapon. They used Lansdale to get them access to the virus and Excella offered assistance of her own supervised research branch to work alongside Lansdale’s own team of G.P.C. scientists. Despite his position as F.B.C. director, Lansdale enjoyed a close relationship with Tricell and knew of their intentions which aided towards his own personal goals. He wanted a new weapon developed to cause a new incident that would allow the F.B.C. to demonstrate their abilities and conclusively prove they needed their power base extending even further. Tricell’s scientists suggested incorporating the t-Virus into The Abyss virus. Using genetic material from both strains, they could open the door for the study of weaponised marine viruses. Lansdale used his influence to acquire the three ‘Queen’ cruise ships once owned by one of Umbrella Corporation’s subsidiaries to provide a mobile operating base for the top-secret research to commence. Lansdale ensured his research team was in charge and Excella’s research team were only assisting. The innocent G.P.C. scientists worked under the false directive they were creating this weapon to create countermeasures to help prevent bioterrorism and biohazard outbreaks.

In 2004, as the new t-Abyss marine bioweapon was being secretly completed, Tricell maintained a positive corporate image and provided sponsorship to the newly formed global anti-bioterrorist organisation, B.S.A.A., a direct rival to the F.B.C. and Lansdale. When the virus was completed, Lansdale betrayed Tricell despite their secret allegiance and would not provide them with a sample of the finished product. Instead he gave it to a terrorist group known as Il Veltro who used it to carry out the incident known as the Terragrigia Panic. This was done so that the F.B.C. could lead the clean-up operation and demonstrate to the world the dangers of bioterrorism and to convince the U.S. Government his organisation needed to be given more power if they were to do their job effectively. Tricell needed to bide their time to take revenge upon Lansdale and Excella Gionne used her position as a G.P.C. officer to assess a number of his most trusted subordinates, eventually approaching two individuals with major misgivings over the way he handled the Terragrigia Panic. These were Jessica Sherawat and Raymond Vester. Both were charmed by Excella and taken onto the Tricell payroll in exchange for spying and making reports back on their leader. Excella was aware they both had separate personal goals, but having them work together would be mutually beneficial for the company. Later that year and following the South Europe incident, Albert Wesker formally approached Tricell with the Las Plagas Subordinate Plaga sample sent to him by Ada Wong following its extraction from Lord Saddler’s island complex. The sample was handed over to Ricardo Irving of the Natural Resource Development Division for further study and to grind out any imperfections.

In 2005, Tricell’s own sleeper agent, Raymond Vester, concocted a plan with B.S.A.A. Director Clive R. O’Brian to bring Morgan Lansdale down. Tricell did not stand in his way, wanting to cut all ties with the F.B.C. after he refused to give them the t-Abyss virus upon its completion. Vester was ordered to acquire a sample of the virus for the pharmaceuticals division and worked with Jessica Sherawat, using the B.S.A.A. to do their work for them to get the evidence against Lansdale. Following the incident on the Queen Zenobia they were successful in recovering the virus and Jessica handed it to Tricell and uploaded the mission report. Morgan Lansdale was arrested and Tricell left him hanging out to dry, severing all ties. When the B.S.A.A. absorbed the F.B.C and were re-organised under the direct control of the U.N., Tricell remained a major sponsor to ensure they could put significant pressure on B.S.A.A. Headquarter should any biohazard incidents occur which were not in the best interests of the corporation.

Later that year, Tricell took advantage of the downfall of pharmaceutical company WilPharma and purchased all of their assets. WilPharma had taken over Umbrella’s mantle as the world’s leading pharmaceutical firm and had developed a successful vaccine for the t-Virus. However, they were surrounded with controversy following leaked pictures of their clinical trials on humans in India. The incident at Harvardville Airport In November made their position intolerable and their stock prices crashed, allowing Tricell to move in and take over extremely quickly. There were rumours Tricell agents were responsible for the death of major WilPharma shareholder Senator Ron Davis who was the only person against their corporate takeover. Tricell scientists immediately got to work on combing the remains of the WilPharma Aerodrome research facility and were successful in recovering samples of the G-Virus located in the remains of the Curtis Miller G-Creature.

Throughout all this time, Excella Gionne had been able to gain a higher standing within the company thanks to the data and samples Wesker provided and the t-Abyss virus. With these assets she was able to expand Tricell’s bio-weapons division exponentially and before long she was making key decisions that would affect the fortunate of the pharmaceutical divisions. Following the incident at the Spencer Estate in 2006, Wesker faked his own death for the second time as a means to leave behind the rival company and join up with Tricell on a permanent basis. He could lurk in the shadows behind the scenes with all of Tricell at his disposal and use Excella as his sounding board. By early 2007, his further manipulation of Excella led to her becoming the CEO of Tricell Africa. Although she never knew at the time, this was Wesker’s way of finally getting hold of the elusive Progenitor Virus. In February of that year, Tricell began excavating the remains of the old Umbrella Africa facility located in the Ndipaya ruins and soon gained access to the elusive Stairway to the sun flower; the source of the virus. Tricell took over the facility completely and funds were authorised to expand the complex dramatically. A huge atrium was built with the capacity to hold thousands of human test subjects.

Thanks to Wesker and Excella, Tricell now had samples of the t, G, t-Abyss and t-Veronica viruses as well as the Las Plagas parasite. They now aimed to create their own super virus in Uroboros, Wesker’s grand continuation of Oswell Spencer’s original plans. In order to raise capital for this project, Tricell rehired Ricardo Irving as a weapons dealer and took part in a number of black market weapon deals. Uroboros was a secretive project, strictly off the books and the larger Tricell family were completely unaware of its existence. By 2008, Tricell scientists had improved Las Plagas by creating the Type 2 and Type 3 strains. These variations vanquished many of the original’s imperfections such as the adverse reaction to sunlight and a reliance on a genuine Dominant Plaga to command the subordinates. This work was supervised by Ricardo Irving and Type 3 Plagas were field tested on a Sodibayan village in the marshlands of Kijuju, near to Tricell’s oil refinery. They had also created several new B.O.W.s such as Popokarimu, Ndesu and the U-8, all of which used Las Plagas as the base organism. These creatures were created so they could be used in Irving’s weapons deals. In addition, some of Umbrella’s original t-type B.O.W.s such as the Licker were improved through application of the Progenitor Virus and re-branded as Licker Betas which proved to be very popular on the black market.

In early 2009, Tricell Africa scientists had finally perfected the Uroboros Virus but Wesker and Excella ensured every scientist involved in its creation were killed and incinerated as a way to prevent any information leaks. At the time, the B.S.A.A. were investigating Ricardo Irving selling bioweapons to American buyers and launched an operation to apprehend him in Kijuju. This resulted in a staged release of the Type 2 Plaga to evaluate their combat prowess against trained soldiers. In the resulting mess the Tricell oil field was destroyed and Excella Gionne was killed, causing a major setback to the company. Their cause was helped by a spy implanted deep within the B.S.A.A. named M. Suzuki who shot and eliminated the main intelligence analyst gathering and collating all the data implicating Tricell’s involvement in Kijuju. The spy also erased all the collected evidence.

However, the wider public and the Global Pharmaceutical Consortium were less forgiving having learned their lessons with Umbrella and Tricell were soon implicated as perpetrators of the Kijuju incident, despite bio-terrorists Albert Wesker and Excella Gionne effectively acting independently of the wider corporation. Tricell were also implicated in the production of the deadly Uroboros Virus and the corporation quickly came under increasing scrutiny as the case went to court. Rival pharmaceutical corporations capitalised on Tricell’s misfortunes and their headquarters in the Mediterranean was attacked and engulfed in a biohazard, forcing the company to abandon it. Tricell tried to persevere and made money from selling their products on the black market including the Type 2 Plaga and the Licker Beta, both of which found their way to Eastern European territories. However by January 2011, Tricell had all but collapsed, with a major public enquiry being held in Washington about the Uroboros Virus and its origins. Some of Tricell’s old data and resources was later intercepted by blacklisted arms dealer Glenn Arias who adopted their former business M.O. of buying and selling illegal biological weapons on the global black market.

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