United States Government

As part of their national defence program and military operations, The United States Government became aware of the illegal side of Umbrella thanks to Oswell Spencer’s influential contacts. This was believed to have taken place sometime in the 1980’s when Umbrella began creating stable biological weapons thanks to improved variants of the in-development t-Virus project. A potential alliance between both parties carried a number of advantages. Umbrella would supply the U.S. with biological weapons they could use in foreign warfare, and in return the government would keep any unwanted attention away from Umbrella’s illegal side and protect their public image as the world’s leading supplier of pharmaceutical products. This alliance was strong but also uneasy. For obvious reasons the government and the President of the United States could not be seen purchasing illegal biological weapons and yet at the same time, Umbrella were also taking a big risk by exposing their secretive bio-weapons program to the most powerful political organisation on the planet.

However, both could take comfort in the fact one could not attack the other without exposing themselves in the process. For example if the government ever decided to attack Umbrella it would expose the illegal practices of their own administration and the cosy collusive relationship between Umbrella and government leaders. It would be political suicide and have long-lasting implications for the whole country. The alliance also led both parties to take a more secretive interest in each other to benefit themselves. The government wanted to use Umbrella’s weapons to spearhead their own secret biological weapons program, whereas Umbrella wanted to use this partnership to implant their own agents into the government administration, allowing the corporation’s influence to spread into the senate.

The ultra-secret collusion remained mutual and secret for a number of years. Throughout that time, the government had an extensive product list of Umbrella’s viral agents and bio-organic-weapons. However, these details were limited to products currently available on the market and they did not receive any intelligence on sections considered top-secret within Umbrella such as in-development status. As time went on, Umbrella became a troublesome entity for the government as it emerged the company had signed similar agreements with other countries to sell them biological weapons, leading to the possibility that B.O.W.s would be used against U.S. troops.

The alliance remained intact until the infamous Raccoon City incident of 1998, when a serious biohazard occurred and the town had to be destroyed. This was the catalyst that brought Umbrella’s cosy relationship with the U.S. Government to an end and made them enemies. The problems began following the events of the mansion incident when William Birkin was nearing completion of the G-Virus. He began to disagree with the direction Umbrella wanted to take his work and believed they were not going to offer him his desired position as a member of the company’s executive board. He was also paranoid that Umbrella were going to hold him responsible for the Arklay biohazard that resulted in the leaking of sensitive data to the ‘rival company,’ and were plotting to get rid of him for good.

In view of this, Birkin contacted the U.S. Government and began making discreet negotiations with high ranking officials, including Derek Simmons, to provide them with the G-Virus and its research data in exchange for protection and the right to study in an American research institute. The government, keen on acquiring Umbrella’s top scientist and the research data for the new virus, quickly agreed to send in a team of U.S. Special Forces to Raccoon City to extradite Dr. Birkin. However, after such a long association with each other, Umbrella had key personnel implanted within the government and vice versa, meaning intelligence was leaked to both sides.

Becoming aware of the government’s plan to extract Birkin, Umbrella responded by sending in Hunk’s team earlier and they got to him first. Additionally the government’s Special Forces were given faulty intelligence as to the layout of Birkin’s lab and had arrived instead at the Dead Factory. Later, Sergei Vladimir would deploy six Tyrants into the industrial zone to wipe them all out. Once the extraction mission failed, the U.S. government put plans in place to destroy Raccoon City with a new type of experimental warhead. Now that the t-Virus had leaked throughout the town and the government’s trust with Umbrella was broken, all bets were off and it was now down to see which organisation would take the fall for the incident. The government now feared that if Umbrella successfully recovered the G-Virus, there was no telling what terrible weapons would be brought to enemies of the United States later on.

Therefore, the U.S. hurried the execution of the “Sterilisation Operation.” But despite obvious appearances, the true purpose of the operation wasn’t to prevent the spread of the virus. Raccoon City’s location was a town existing in isolation within a Midwestern wilderness. Since it was surrounded by dry desert, there was no need to be concerned about the virus spreading. This operation was pushed for strongly by Derek Simmons, and was secretly all about preventing Umbrella taking Birkin’s research results. He was in complete disregard for any survivors within the town. Simmons also argued that a missile strike would eradicate any physical evidence of the government’s involvement with Umbrella. But Umbrella became aware of this plan and in an attempt to buy time, leaked video feeds of the U.B.C.S.’s civilian rescue missions inside the city to the mass media, promoting a humane rescue effort and letting the world know the city could be saved. Spencer also used his influence within the U.S. senate to delay any missile strike. These tactics worked and the sterilisation operation was delayed by several days, buying Umbrella more time to secure the G-Virus.

In response, the government used this time to deploy teams of Spec Ops soldiers into the city. Their primary mission was to uncover proof of Umbrella’s involvement over the outbreak and if possible, recover their own sample of the G-Virus. Over several days they infiltrated several locations across town, including key Umbrella facilities. To compensate, Umbrella sent in more U.S.S. teams for ‘Operation Raccoon City’ with goals to destroy evidence linking Umbrella’s involvement in the incident. It became a game of cat and mouse between the opposing forces.

Eventually, Umbrella’s stalling tactics worked as it bought enough time for Hunk to make it out of the city with the recovered G-Virus which he then delivered to Umbrella at Loire Village in France. Soon afterwards, Simmons got final approval to bomb Raccoon city and an experimental Thermobaric bomb destroyed the entire town and the biohazard that had engulfed it. In a sense, it was a victory for both sides. Umbrella had recovered the G-Virus and any evidence of their involvement in the incident had vanished with the missile touchdown. Likewise it was the same for the government, as they had Sherry Birkin in their custody; a little girl who carried the G-Virus antibody and the only person in the entire world to do so.

The U.S. Government was forced to answer some tough questions in the fallout of the incident, leading to the resignation of the President as people sought the connection to Umbrella and the biohazard that had engulfed the town. They were heavily scrutinised with many sections of the public being unable to forgive the decision to launch a missile at their own soil, effectively killing 100,000 people. In order to win back public support, a new government administration was put into place that took a firm anti-Umbrella stance, waging all-out war on the corporation in order to atone for previous sins. They hit Umbrella with many lawsuits and a business suspension decree which crashed the company’s stock prices hard.

A new secret military agency was formed by government official Adam Benford whose primary mission was to gather information about B.O.W.s and bio-warfare. Leon S. Kennedy was recruited into this agency following his extensive involvement in the Raccoon incident. There was a very real threat of deadly biological weapons going out of control, and this was clearly, evident not only from incidents involving Umbrella, but with other groups such as the ‘rival company’ and later, Tricell.

This group carried out operations across the world, aided by a directive issued by the president known as ‘Anti-Virus Weapon Protocol No. 7600.’ In 2001 they carried out an operation in Africa to apprehend a top Umbrella official supplying guerrilla forces with biological weapons. That same year they also sanctioned the formation of the Federal Bioterrorism Commission (F.B.C.), who became a domestic anti-bioterrorism unit operating under the jurisdiction of the government and led by General Morgan Lansdale.

In 2002, the Secret Military Agency also took down a ruthless South American drug lord known as Javier Hidalgo who had a contract with Umbrella. By now the agency was more commonly referred to as the Anti-Umbrella Pursuit and Investigation Team (A,U.P.I.T.) within the United States Strategic Command. One of their major operations was to investigate a former Umbrella researcher by the name of Morpheus. D. Duvall who tried to cause a major bio-terrorist event and inadvertently scuppered one of Umbrella’s major recovery programs. Also that year, numerous small-scale t-Virus outbreaks occurred in India thanks to Frederic Downing showcasing its abilities to terrorist leaders. In response, the U.S. Government sanctioned the use of WilPharma Corporation’s in-development t-Virus vaccine to aid the Indian authorities and halt the spread of iinfection. This success saw WilPharma win the trust of the U.S. Government and over the next three years continued with clinical trials in India. These trials were not without human sacrifice, but the American government overlooked these losses so long as the vaccine was completed.

Throughout this time, the Supreme Court case dragged on as Umbrella’s deep pockets were able to secure the very best lawyers money could buy and Spencer backhanded many false witnesses, prolonging the court case with part of the blame for the incident cleverly shifted on the American government. The result was an on-going struggle between the US administration and Umbrella, with heavily skewered public opinion over the two parties. A significant breakthrough was made in 2003 when an anonymous witness (Albert Wesker) handed the prosecution inconclusive proof that Umbrella caused the Raccoon City incident thanks to illegally developed viral and biological weapons.

Following this irrefutable evidence, the Raccoon Trials finally concluded with Umbrella found guilty on all charges. Over the following year the corporation was finally dissolved completely and the U.S. Government was let off the hook. They quickly put a plan in place to round up all scientists and former employees before they could place the remnants of Umbrella’s technology onto the black market and align themselves with terrorist organisations.

2004 was the year of the Terragrigia Panic and the incident that finally proved once and for all the existence of B.O.W.s. Photographs were published in ‘La Revelation’ newspaper and no longer could their existence be denied to the public at large. The city was eventually destroyed in a situation eerily reminiscent of Raccoon City and the U.S. Government came under scrutiny for the way their own Federal Bioterrorism Commission handled the incident.

Later that year, the government became involved in another bio-terrorist attack when the new president’s daughter was abducted by terrorists known as the ‘Los Illuminados’. Their plan was to infect her with a parasite known as Las Plagas; an organism that could take complete control of its host. She would then be sent back to her father, allowing the organism to infiltrate the government from within, enabling the Los Illuminados to take over by seizing power in Congress, the Department of Justice and the Military. However, this scheme was foiled by Leon S. Kennedy who was still an operative of the Secret Military Agency.

By 2005, WilPharma’s vaccine was completed and only awaited federal approval. The Pentagon furthered this development by allocating $1 million to a huge public anti-bioterror program. But the shadow of the U.S. Government’s involvement with the Raccoon City incident loomed large during a bio-terrorist attack at Harvardville Airport. There, terrorists threatened to disperse the t-Virus at major cities across the United States unless the government revealed the truth behind the Raccoon City incident. Again, Secret Military Agency operative Leon Kennedy helped bring the incident to a peaceful conclusion. Benford’s agency also intervened during an outbreak caused by former Umbrella employees in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Evidence found by police officer Tyler Howard was confiscated by the government and Adam Benford himself recruited Howard into his unit.

The U.S. Government continued to fight bioterrorism across the world, although they did have a fractious relationship with the B.S.A.A., leading back to the faked Il Veltro revival incident of 2005, where the F.B.C.’s leader, Morgan Lansdale, was revealed to have been corrupt and provided terrorists with the means to attack Terragrigia a year earlier. The F.B.C. was disbanded and many of its assets transferred across to the B.S.A.A., who in turn were re-formed under the jurisdiction of the United Nations. Although the B.S.A.A. had a North American branch, the U.S. Government did not permit them to get involved in large-scale bio-terror incidents on American soil. However, any animosity between the government and the B.S.A.A. was cooled thanks to a special meeting set up between Leon S. Kennedy and Chris Redfield.

For the next several years, bio-terrorism events continued to occur across the globe and the government adapted to tackle these threats with new administrations and new organisations such as the Division of Security Operations and the Field Operations Support.

By 2013, the now President Adam Benford began to realise that these events would carry on continuously unless the world came together and united against the common threat of bioterrorism. He reasoned that the only way achieve this was for the U.S. Government to admit their past mistakes and reveal the full truth behind the Raccoon City incident. Naturally there were many who were deeply opposed to this idea, none more so than Derek Simmons who by this point was the chief National Security Advisor and Benford’s right hand man. He believed that revealing the truth would cause the United States to lose all influence, power and leverage on the political spectrum, leading to severe distrust, a breakdown of alliances and a significant loss to their position as a supreme world power. He used his position as head of ‘The Family’ to stage a bio-terrorist attack at Tall Oaks; the venue at which President Benford was due to give his speech revealing the full truth behind Raccoon City. Benford was killed in the resulting attack and the government’s secrets were kept safe once again.

A few days later National Security Advisor Derek Simmons was killed and evidence uncovered that he had planned Benford’s assassination and orchestrated the Tall Oaks biohazard. In the following months, close confederates of Simmons leaked sensitive data to terrorist organisations out of spite and did much to disrupt the work being carried out by the D.S.O. One of Benford’s former aides and even the new Vice-President were allegedly involved.

The U.S. Government were also responsible for the drone bombing of Glenn Arias’ wedding – a wanted target involved in illegal weapons smuggling.

Departments:

U.S. INTELLIGENCE DEPARTMENT/SECRET MILITARY AGENCY: A unit created in response to the 1998 Raccoon City disaster by Adam Benford working alongside the Intelligence Department. The team was made up of specialised individuals with experience in dealing with B.O.W.s. Their goal was to produce effective countermeasures against these weapons as well intelligence gathering, security activities and special operations all aimed at destroying Umbrella Corporation and its illicit operations. They also monitored other organisations believed to be in the possession of such illegal weapons. They also became known as the Anti-Umbrella Pursuit and Investigation Team and were later placed under the banner of US STRATCOM.

FEDERAL BIOTERRORISM COMMISSION: The F.B.C. was set up in 2001 after Morgan Lansdale campaigned in congress to push through the 2001 National Defence Act. He argued that the lack of a specialised military unit to tackle bioterrorism left the United States exposed to a potential attack. The F.B.C. had the full authority of the U.S. Government and were outfitted with the latest technology, weapons and hardware. They were successful in resolving the 2004 Terragrigia Panic yet were dissolved in 2005 when it was revealed Morgan Lansdale had originally supplied the terrorists with the t-Abyss virus used to cause the incident.

SECRET SERVICE: Agents of the U.S.S.S. were dispatched on secret missions under orders given directly from the White House. Agents in charge of special missions were assigned dedicated operators to serve as contact and support personnel, and orders were given via portable data terminals. This was a special measure to ensure there would be no knowledge that the mission was conducted under direct presidential orders, even if the agent failed in his mission. Secret Service agents were often placed on security detail and charged with VI.P. protection.

DIVISION OF SECURITY OPERATIONS: A secret military organisation formed in 2011 under the direct control of the President with a primary mission to expose bioterrorism. Only the very best agencies were recruited and the organisation became known as the ‘Sword of the President’ following a successful two years eliminating all threats to the United States. Leon Kennedy was a founding member and operatives worked in tandem with the Field Operations Support. The D.S.O. was seen as an unofficial successor to the F.B.C.

FIELD OPERATIONS SUPPORT: Field Operations Support (F.O.S.) was an organisation operating at the highest level of the U.S. government. Its original mission was to provide support for agents from multiple U.S. intelligence agencies discharging their duties around the world. As the dangers posed by bioterrorism began to take priority for U.S. security, the F.O.S. was evolved to oversee all operations that dealt with responses to and the prevention of bioterrorism. The F.O.S was originally formed in 2011 by Adam Benford, with Ingrid Hunnigan installed as operations coordinator. The F.O.S. focused on supporting the Division of Security Operations and their missions.

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