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Resident Evil: The Umbrella Conspiracy is a novelization of the first Resident Evil game, and was written by author S.D. Perry as the first book in her series of Resident Evil novels. The novel combines Jill's and Chris's scenarios into one narrative and features all five of the main characters (including Barry, Rebecca, Joseph and Brad).

Plot[]

"ENTER THE WORLD OF SURVIVAL HORROR....

Raccoon City: a remote mountain community suddenly besieged by a rash of grisly murders encroaching upon it from the surrounding forest. Bizarre reports start to spread, describing attacks from vicious creatures, some human...some not. Victims are apparently eaten.

At the epicenter of these deaths is a dark, secluded mansion belonging to the mysterious Umbrella Corporation. For years umbrella has labored within the mansion, unwatched, ostensibly conducting benign genetic research.

Deployed to investigate the strange goings-on is the Special Tactics and Rescue Squad (S.T.A.R.S.), an unusual paramilitary response unit boasting an eclectic assortment of mission specialists: roguish Chris Redfield, former cat burglar Jill Valentine, dead-eye Barry Burton, and the enigmatic team leader, Albert Wesker. Together with the other S.T.A.R.S. operatives, they have a good reason t believe they're ready for anything.

But what unfolds as the S.T.A.R.S. penetrate the mansion's long-locked doors is terror beyond their worst nightmares: creatures that defy the laws of life and death-the result of forbidden experiments gone disastrously wrong. Behind it all is a conspiracy so vast in its scope and so insidious in its agenda that the S.T.A.R.S. will be betrayed from within to ensure that the world never learns Umbrella's secret. And if any survive...they may well come to envy those who did not."
— Story blurb

The novel begins with Jill running late for an emergency S.T.A.R.S. meeting in Raccoon City, Pennsylvania. The investigation of the recent cannibalistic murders was been put in their hands, but the S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team was assigned with the mission and sent into the mountains. The police department has since lost contact with them. Jill wants to see the case closed as soon as possible, after the murders of local children, Becky and Priscilla McGee, of whom she befriended. As she gets ready to join the Alpha Team helicopter to search for the Bravos, a mysterious man named Trent appears in the locker room. He provides her with information about a mansion in the mountains - the "old Spencer place" - which contains a list of names of people connected with the building.

Arriving outside the mansion, the team find the wreckage of Bravo Team's helicopter. They are attacked by vicious dogs, with Joseph Frost being killed. The team's pilot, Brad Vickers abandons the team members in panic. Jill, Barry, Chris and Albert safely enter the mansion and split up to investigate.

Chris discovers Rebecca Chambers, the young Bravo Team medic, and partners up with her. Finding the remains of Bravo Team's Forest Speyer, Chris takes his friend's handgun and M-16 and arms Rebecca. Meanwhile, Jill begins to suspect that something is wrong with Barry as he becomes increasingly absent, though is armed with a shotgun when Barry rescues her from a trap room with a collapsing ceiling. She is unaware that Captain Wesker is working to undermine his team's investigation, and has coerced Barry into helping him.

With everyone finding their way into the underground laboratory, Barry leads Jill into the Tyrant lab and sends her to Wesker - it is revealed that Wesker has had Barry's family taken hostage, and the kidnappers have instructions to kill his family if they lose contact with the S.T.A.R.S. Captain. He eventually choses to betray his Captain and knocks him unconscious so the Alphas can escape. Escaping from the Tyrant lab and heading back to the surface, the four regain contact with Brad and await his arrival. The Tyrant awakens and attacks the group, but Chris is able to destroy it with a rocket launcher. Back underground, Wesker regains consciousness and tries to activate the facility's self-destruct sequence. The Chimera B.O.W.s make an appearance and seemingly kill him.

Characters[]


Publication[]

According to copyright logs, the first edition of Umbrella Conspiracy was published on 23 September 1998.[1] A Japanese translation, made by Kazama Kenji (風間賢二?), was published by Chūōkōron (中央公論?) in July 2004.

An updated English edition was published by Titan Books in September 2012, coming with a new cover design.

Sources[]

  1. WebVoyage Record. cocatalog.loc.gov. Retrieved on 2013-10-20.
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