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Prime universe
(Capcom's primary storyline)

The "rival company", also known as "the organization",[note 1] was a developer of illegal bioweapons and was a major rival to the Umbrella Corporation in the 1990s and 2000s. This organisation aggressively competed with Umbrella from 1998 to 2003 and, through the use of spies, turncoats and its paramilitary wing, H.C.F., was able to dismantle Umbrella's operation and take its place in the market prior to its 2003 bankruptcy. The rival company itself fractured soon after, ultimately merging into Tricell in 2004.[citation needed]

History[]

The organization was shown to have advanced technology and lots of resources - financial, political, and otherwise - at their disposal, and had an effective free-reign in their area of society. The organization made repeated attempts to cripple or damage Umbrella's key operations and facilities, knowing that these acts of sabotage could eventually dismantle Umbrella's influence and power.

Raccoon City[]

By 1998 the rival company was successful in placing a spy in Umbrella's ranks. Their agent, a Chinese woman calling herself Ada Wong, was transferred to the Arklay Laboratory, which included top-secret research projects unknown even to other B.O.W. development teams. While there, Wong became romantically involved with the facility's chief researcher, John Clemens, using their relationship as a means of gaining information.[1] During her time at the facility, a saboteur released Epsilon into the water supply in May 1998.[1] The facility soon fell into anarchy with cannibalistic murders and animal attacks becoming commonplace, and Wong was forced to abandon the mission empty-handed. In July, the company was successful in opening a dialogue with Dr. Albert Wesker, an Umbrella executive responsible for security in the Raccoon City facilities. Wesker had received orders from Umbrella to lead a special forces team into the laboratory and recover sensitive research data and embryonic clone samples, but instead planned to fake his death and hand the material over to the organisation in exchange for a senior position. The operation, dubbed X-Day by Umbrella, was a failure for both sides, with both factions failing to recover the embryos and Wesker's login code being rescinded from the computer. Forced to escape the mansion empty-handed, Wesker chose to continue his service with the organisation using his own experience as the bargaining chip instead.

Later in 1998, the organisation shifted its interested instead towards NEST and research conducted by Dr. William Birkin. Having worked with Birkin for years, Wesker was well aware of the G-Virus Project and Birkin's own plans to abandon Umbrella and work for the Pentagon. Several agents were placed within Raccoon City, including Wong and "the liaison", and began spying on Umbrella to recover any information of value, with Wong making contact with investigative reporter Ben Bertolucci, who had already come to the city with the intention of spying on Umbrella after news of the Cannibal Disease spread. The second phase of the operation was the infiltration of NEST itself using its secret underground transport tunnel, wherein Wong was to recover Birkin, his wife and the G-Virus research data. This operation however was hit by a number of setbacks; on the night of 22 September, Birkin was shot while resisting arrest by the Umbrella Security Service and his research recovered. Following an intense fight on 23 September, most G-Virus samples were lost, and Epsilon found its way into the city's water supply, causing cases of Cannibal Disease to spike. With the arrest of Bertolucci by the corrupt Raccoon Police Department on 24 September, the mission was at risk of collapse though its agents were not evacuated.

By 29 September, the mission had changed radically; aware of the Birkin shooting, the mission parameters were modified and Wong received orders to capture his daughter, Sherry, who was known to carry a locket containing a sample of the virus and was likely in hiding. How far she searched for Sherry is unknown, though Wong chose instead to make plans to infiltrate NEST and recover a G-Virus sample from it. Arriving at the Raccoon Police Station first, she spoke with Bertolucci, who was unable to provide any more useful information and was killed soon after. With the help of a surviving RPD officer, Leon S. Kennedy, Wong the two made their way into the sewers and headed towards NEST by its underground transport terminal. The situation in NEST was found to be chaotic; not only had it fallen to a t-Virus outbreak, but the hunt for G-Virus had escalated matters further. William himself had lost all sense of humanity and could not be reasoned with, while his wife Dr. Annette Birkin was uncooperative and identified Wong as a spy sent to recover the virus; their daughter Sherry meanwhile was awaiting emergency treatment after being impregnated with a G-embryo and had lost her locket, which a Tyrant had also entered NEST with orders to recover. The extreme situation proved to be the mission's undoing, with Kennedy throwing away the locket in an attempt to deny its recovery to anyone; severely injured and with NEST's self-destruct system activated, Wong was unable to recover the locket and instead escaped with a skin tissue sample shed by Birkin.

Throughout 30 September, contact was lost with Wong and the mission was determined by Wesker to be a complete failure and the agents were left to their fate once more, with the Liaison killing himself to avoid infection.[2] Wong was ultimately able to regain contact with Wesker and, in exchange for the tissue sample, was given information on a helicopter being flown out of the city carrying UBCS leader Sergei Vladimir. Wong was ultimately successful and escaped the city on a crate being carried by the helicopter.

Rockfort Island[]

All the previous events were recorded by Wesker and noted in Wesker's Report. The next desired virus the organization targeted was the t-Veronica virus, created by Alexia Ashford. Wesker was sent to secure a sample of it from Rockfort Island, the location of one of Umbrella's bases. Leading the company's paramilitary deployment, H.C.F., Wesker openly attacked the Umbrella facility, causing the t-Virus samples on the island to escape and contaminate all remaining personnel, turning them into zombies.

Wesker continued his activity after this, making use of his superhuman powers to maneuver around the area. He would soon reveal himself to Claire Redfield and her brother Chris Redfield, Wesker's former S.T.A.R.S. comrade and hated nemesis. Wesker despised Chris because he had ruined his plans months ago in the mansion and wanted revenge, also taking out some of his hatred on Claire.

Wesker and his men later had to instead go to Antarctica, where Alexia and her virus truly were in another Umbrella base. All the while, Wesker made repeated attempts to get a t-Veronica sample, but soon had to deal with the awakened Alexia. He demanded the t-Veronica sample from Alexia, who selfishly declared Wesker to be "unworthy" of the virus' power.

After a brief battle between them, Wesker left Chris to fight Alexia. Chris did so, but destroyed her, preventing Wesker from getting what seemed to be the only existing sample in her body.

However, Wesker was undaunted, and grabbed Claire as Chris pursued them. Outside the burning lab on a dock where a submarine was located, Chris demanded Wesker let his sister go. He complied, and pointed out that he no longer needed Alexia, since his men had recovered the body of Steve Burnside, who had been infected himself and contained a sample.

Chris told Claire to get to an airship inside the crumbling lab while he dealt with Wesker. Attempting to avenge his fallen comrades, Chris was no match for the superhuman Wesker and was nearly killed. He luckily managed to pin Wesker under several steel girders.

Undefeated, Wesker prepared to kill him, but was blocked by an explosion from the lab and scarred. Chris escaped, and Wesker, knowing he would have to wait until he met him again, laughed maniacally and left the destroyed island in the submarine. Wesker brought Steve's body to the organization, who recovered a sample of the t-Veronica virus from him.

Umbrella's End[]

The organization had gained combat data on various B.O.W.s as well as samples of the t-Virus; G-virus, and t-Veronica virus. All of this had given them an immense advantage over their competitor, Umbrella, which was slowly losing influence in the world. Albert Wesker, however, had plans of his own while working with the organization, and conducted secret activities behind the scenes. Wesker infiltrated Umbrella's final stronghold in the Caucasus in Russia.

Sergei Vladimir was planning to use the ultimate B.O.W., T-A.L.O.S., and the Red Queen to ensure Umbrella's survival at the request of Oswell E. Spencer, who was in hiding. Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine also went to the base in hopes of destroying Umbrella once and for all. Wesker personally raided the facility, fighting past every B.O.W. and t-Virus infected scientist in the lab and found Sergei. Defeating and killing him after he mutated, Wesker cleared out the U.M.F.-013 computer core.

The Umbrella Archives, the summation of the entire company, were put on a single disc for Wesker, and he shut down the Red Queen. Wesker proved instrumental in bringing Umbrella down, as he brought his findings into court and personally testified against Spencer. While the Umbrella CEO was hunted, the organization had succeeded in destroying their biggest opponent thanks to Albert Wesker. However, Wesker would keep the archives he recovered and took over all of Umbrella's assets, planning to establish a new Umbrella.

A New World[]

Sometime after 2002, Wesker was approached by rogue US Army veteran Jack Krauser, who had been discharged after an injury during the attempted arrest of crime lord Javier Hidalgo, a business partner of Wesker's. Having faked his own death, Krauser sought out Wesker after hearing about him from Leon S. Kennedy, wishing to become stronger with the power of the virus. He then became Wesker's loyal follower in the organization, which conducted numerous background checks on Krauser.

Following Umbrella's demise in 2003, Wesker contacted TRICELL Inc, Africa member Excella Gionne and formed an alliance with her, giving her samples of the t-Virus and t-Veronica. With these and Wesker's backing, she became Director of TRICELL's Africa division, which Wesker sought to use as a backup plan to realise his ambitions should the rival company betray him.

In 2004, Wesker recruited Ada Wong and Jack Krauser in the mission to retrieve samples of the Plaga from Los Iluminados, particularly the dominant species Plaga. While the mission was a success, the top brass of the organization had secretly ordered Ada to deliver them the dominant species, leaving Wesker merely with samples of the subordinate species. Unphased by this foreseen betrayal, Wesker retrieved a sample from the corpse of Krauser.

Products[]

Three B.O.W. products are known to have been engineered by the rival company, all based on research and samples obtained by Dr. Albert Wesker:

  • Hunter II - A copy of Umbrella's Hunter series of B.O.W. based on information on the Hunter α.
  • Sweeper - A poisonous variant of the Hunter II designed to further ensure to eradication of resistance in combat.
  • Jabberwock S3 - A creature created through the t-Veronica virus retrieved in Antarctica.
  • Eveline (possibly) - A biological weapon capable of manipulating the minds of others, designed to infiltrate political and military organisations. Wesker was indirectly mentioned where it was revealed that his H.C.F. group was involved in the creation of Eveline during the 2000s.

Further notes[]

  • In the English localisation of Resident Evil 2, this group was referred to as the "agency". This, however, was a mistranslation, as in the original Japanese script, Annette Birkin refers to it as "a certain organization". This error was carried on into the S.D. Perry series of novels.
  • The Albert Wesker file in Resident Evil 5 mentions Wesker working with a number of Umbrella's rivals and selling them samples of viruses for financial gain. This was a mistranslation; the actual file only makes mention of one rival company and Wesker used the viruses to rise within it, not for financial gain.
  • While the company was not given an official name in any of the games, early concept art for Code Veronica names the company as the World Xenobiological Company or WXC, which apparently specialized in studying abnormal & synthetic biology, the study of life's origins on Earth & maybe elsewhere, etc. Early designs of Wesker's H.C.F outfit reflected this backstory in the form of an arm patch which had two bottles or pills overlapping in the shape of an X. By the time of the release of the actual game though any trace of the company's name or previous origins had been removed in favor of the all black outfit Wesker wore instead, leaving the canonicity of the above info debatable.

Sources[]

Notes
  1. The Japanese script for Wesker's Report uses "組織" ("Soshiki") which means "organization".
References
  1. 1.0 1.1 Capcom. Resident Evil. (Capcom Co., Ltd.). File: Letter of a Researcher.
  2. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, Death's Door 1 scene
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