Richard Aiken

Richard Aiken was a member of the Special Tactics And Rescue Service, serving as the S.T.A.R.S. Bravo team communications expert. On a personal level, Richard is described as being a "positive, sweet guy", who, despite his relatively young age, is "surprisingly cool-headed and calm under pressure". He always greeted new S.T.A.R.S Members warmly. His weapon of choice was his customized assault shotgun.

Biography
When Bravo Team was stranded in Raccoon Forest, the team was attacked and Richard, along with most of his teammates, managed to make their way to an apparently-abandoned Mansion, but scattered when they found it filled with undead.

Richard found one of his teammates, Rebecca Chambers, sleeping in a remote bedroom in the nearby Guards' Residence. Richard comforted the youngest member, assuaging her fears and gaining her assistance in an attempt to locate Enrico Marini, their captain, in the hopes of making a plan to escape the mansion or summon help.

The two proceeded throughout several areas of the mansion and grounds, desperately seeking Marini. Eventually the two were attacked by a giant snake. While they were successful in driving the beast away, Richard took Yawn's final attack to spare Rebecca. Richard was bitten on the side and thrown through the air before the beast slithered away.

Before he died, Richard gave his short-wave radio to his fellow S.T.A.R.S. members. The radio however, was broken and could only be used to receive S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team's pilot Brad Vickers's transmissions.

Death variants


In the GameCube remake of the game, Richard can die in three different ways:
 * If the player takes too long looking for the Antivenom, he dies of from the Yawn's Venom. This was the only cause of death in the original game.
 * If Chris Redfield gives him the serum on time, Aiken will be eaten by a Neptune, saving Chris from it.
 * If Jill Valentine saves him, then he will sacrifice himself to the Yawn to stop it from killing her.

In Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine will find him with Rebecca Chambers injured by Yawn. He eventually dies of poison off-screen.

It should be noted that all of Richard's possible deaths are a result of self-sacrifice; poisoned by the Yawn to save Rebecca and eaten to save Jill or Chris. This carries over into Biohazard: Pachislot, where he can sacrifice himself to save Jill (possibly Chris) from various monsters.

In the novel The Umbrella Conspiracy, Richard is found by Chris Redfield and Rebecca Chambers already dead from the venom.

Trivia

 * A letter can be found in Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles where he explains why he became a S.T.A.R.S. member.


 * Richard is one of the playable characters in the multiplayer mode in the Nintendo DS remake of the original game, Resident Evil: Deadly Silence.


 * It should be noted that Richard's t-shirt under his vest doesn't have the S.T.A.R.S emblem on the left sleeve, and instead it has the R.P.D emblem on the right sleeve; but in Resident Evil 0 opening he has S.T.A.R.S. emblem on his t-shirt.