Chapter 127
128
Chapter 128 Resident Evil is like this—
[Resident Evil]
Snap
After browsing through the documents, Vera casually tossed the folder bearing the insignia of the Pentagon and the USA Army onto the coffee table. Leaning back in her high-backed chair, she rested her right elbow on the desk, propped her cheek in her hand, and gazed thoughtfully at the holographic display screen in front of her.
Without any manual intervention, Vera's inherited Umbrella legacy—the super artificial intelligence "Red Queen"—had already retrieved and displayed on the screen the locations of the US Military's Bioterrorist Attack in the Afghanistan theater this month, as well as BOW eyewitness data.
From Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, to Kandahar, a major city in the south, and all the way to the Hindu Kush Mountains, the black Seraphim biohazard icon is everywhere.
Opening the attachments reveals photos of the murdered USA soldiers, all covered in blood and gore, with obvious bite marks, and some even dismembered.
"Hunter, Licker, Tyrant T-103, or the improved version... Proliferating mutation, parasite, is it the Nemesis-Alpha parasite... The 160th SOAR Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which carried out Operation Boa, has suffered heavy losses..."
Vera murmured to herself.
In the Afghanistan campaign, the naval air force bombed, the air force bombed, and the army air force bombed and armored forces attacked. Under the Saturation Strike of the wealthy US Military, things went smoothly at first. However, once the campaign entered the counterinsurgency and mopping-up operations mode, the military's casualties began to soar.
The military high command decided to Decapitation Strike, prioritizing the elimination of high-ranking supporters of Afghanistan terrorists. After reconnaissance, they selected Mount Gardez and decided to launch "Operation Boa" to wipe out the mountainous region. Then, unsurprisingly, things went wrong.
As predicted in the original plan by the Afghanistan military command, Operation Boa was supposed to be a small-scale battle that would end within three days, but it ended up lasting for more than half a month, with the first two weeks of fighting being particularly intense.
Just as the Special Operations Forces (SOF) soldiers thought they had broken the terrorists' will, like in the Gulf War, and began to report back, splitting their forces to penetrate deeper into the mountains to pursue the enemy to the bitter end, the Resident Evil quietly broke out.
Someone released the T-Virus.
Meanwhile, a large number of BOWs were deliberately released at the opportune moment, taking advantage of the US military's split-up forces to pursue and eliminate them. There were also infected corpses, which immediately led to the collapse of the US regiment.
Especially when you are unaware that your comrades-in-arms have turned into Zombies and are tearing you apart, whether you kill them or are bitten, it will severely affect morale.
Although the Raccoon City Resident Evil disaster of 1998 has been included in textbooks, biohazard incidents in the period from Raccoon City until 2002 were still limited to a small scale and were mostly handled by the BSAA Organization, military chemical defense and security professionals, or a small but elite military combatant force.
Even if regular special forces soldiers know this, they still inevitably become flustered and overwhelmed when it actually happens to them.
It can be said that the Resident Evil in the Afghan War was deliberately manipulated, taking full advantage of the timing, location, and human factors, and delivering a surprise blow to the US military in the location most suitable for BOW performance.
After this, many people thought that the Resident Evil disaster had fallen into a slump and had even been eradicated, and it once again became the world's headline.
Anyway, the BSAA's super anti-biohazard hero has already gone there.
"That's true, no matter how unconventional the shortcut, there will always be people taking it..."
Vera glanced at the war situation information on the screen and casually twirled the mechanical pen in her hand.
The quantity, the density, and the completeness of the variety of goods offered by BOW...
Umbrella fell, and Vera's Militech certainly profited immensely, she couldn't consume it all.
The Caucasus base, Umbrella's 'fundamentalist' Spencer faction intended to be a trump card for turning the tide, was wiped out less than a year ago by her MSF forces in cooperation with the BSAA Organization. Even if some of the biochemical heritage and virus technology were to leak out and reappear, it would still require considerable time and money.
It's highly unlikely that it was the result of some lucky outsider picking up a fortune or scavenging, or that a researcher from one of Umbrella's branches lined up their own pockets.
It should be at least a branch management position or higher.
Tch! Seriously, I don't know where Umbrella got their habit of building research institutes and BOW storage warehouses all over the world.
The location of some warehouses was probably unknown even to Spencer himself in his old age.
"Ha, with Oswell E. Spencer dead, all sorts of monsters and demons have started to show themselves."
There are so many ambitious people in this world, Vera rarely showed a self-deprecating smile.
She's probably the most outstanding one among them.
Moreover, he has cleaned up his act and gone ashore, specializing in killing other "demons and monsters".
With the death of Spencer, the last founding member of Umbrella, the old Umbrella Corporation has essentially ceased to exist. However, Umbrella's legacy, its relentless pursuit of Super Virus, and its morbid eugenics theories have spread far and wide. Predictably, the chaos in Afghanistan is just the beginning.
Vera is a picky eater, but many people aren't.
Even if organic biochemical weapons are rotten, they can still fill your stomach.
Who could it be?
With a thoughtful expression, Vera placed the mechanical pencil face down on the table, leaned forward, clasped her hands together and rested them against her nose, and quietly stared at the computer screen.
Synchronizing with Vera's thoughts, the "Red Queen," appearing as a little girl in red, retrieved information on Spencer, Albert Wesker, Alex Wesker, Morpheus D. Duval (former director of the Atlantic Institute), Brandon Bailey (former director of the African Institute), Christine Henri (former director of the Blue Umbrella), Jackson Cortlandt (former director of the White Umbrella), and a host of other Umbrella remnants.
The content is divided into separate screens, rich in images and text, and rigorous and standardized.
This "Red Queen" was personally programmed and trained by Vera using AI technology from the "Cyberpunk" Arasaka Corporation, based on the achievements of Umbrella's Red Umbrella division.
It works well.
The rules and regulations used to limit AI's unordered learning and prevent betrayal go without saying.
This is a fundamental skill that any company with an internal private LAN must master after experiencing the Great Network Collapse and the Rogue AI disasters.
In reality, the AI of the Major Corporations in the Cyberpunk is just as advanced in terms of strong intelligence technology; it's just that a past cyber catastrophe caused the AI application environment in that world to deteriorate drastically.
Yes, Rachie Batmos, I'm talking about you, you damn genius, arrogant bastard, paranoid idiot!
Every thought leads to a curse.
The more you use this kind of super artificial intelligence with its own operational logic, the more enjoyable it becomes. Vera can better understand why Network Surveillance and those cybersecurity professionals hate Bartmoss so much.
Feeling empathy, Vera cursed on behalf of 'herself' who couldn't use the powerful AI in Arasaka, then looked at the 'war criminals' on the screen. Her gaze finally settled on one of the pictures: a blonde, blue-eyed woman with short, slicked-back hair and a white suit—a very glamorous and stylish woman.
Alex Wesker.
"They've even abandoned the well-established research facilities on Sondtotoca Island and vanished without a trace... Alex has already abandoned old Spencer, whose value has been completely drained."
Vera shook her head.
Her 'future vision,' which cannot be revealed to outsiders, allows her to deduce parts of what is happening even with incomplete information, based on crucial fragments.
After reviewing Alex's resume, Vera pulled up brief information about Sabiti Island, formerly part of the CCCP territory: a large research team, a mining company restarting the extraction and exploitation of the island's mineral resources... a compassionate savior woman revitalizing industry...
"Have they gone into seclusion? It seems that the emergence of the T-Fear Virus is only a matter of time."
As Vera snapped her fingers, the Red Queen, quite considerately, closed the document displaying Alex's information.
She looked at Wesker, the man in sunglasses.
"Albert Wesker has already climbed up to Travis Company. Interestingly, is the BOW circulating on the Black Market in the Middle East and Tricell Asia their doing?"
Based on the available intelligence alone, it is not possible to determine whether the chaos in Afghanistan is Wesker demonstrating to his new masters the extent to which the virus can be profitable.
After all, the global instability brought about by the 9/11 war on terror and the spread of terrorist and extremist ideologies in some regions created an international environment that naturally fostered new users of biological and chemical weapons, which can achieve great results with minimal investment.
Given the prevailing sentiment in the Resident Evil world, having too many suspects could lead to anything.
Vera then looked at the other suspects listed by the Red Queen who might be capable of supplying such a large-scale BOW.
Morpheus.
This effeminate, handsome white-haired man was a former managerial employee of Umbrella. After being fired, he made a series of underhanded moves, such as leading his own mercenary group to seize Umbrella's legacy and restarting the Atlantic Institute.
The BSAA Organization is tracking him.
Brandon.
Dr. Marcus's student, Spencer's right-hand man, former director of the African Institute, and the founder of the "Alliance," the black glove that Umbrella used to profit from the sale of biological weapons.
Before Vera's Militech secretly took over and reorganized the African Institute, he seemed to have foreseen Spencer's downfall and fled in advance, taking all the research results with him.
During the process, perhaps because Vera and he had a past relationship—they used to work at the same company and saw each other all the time—and because he wasn't like William Birkin, with a morbid competitive spirit and strange ego, Brandon thoughtfully didn't activate the research institute's self-destruct program, nor did he destroy the Sun Stairflower from the Dubai underground ruins.
It seemed to be a hint to Vera:
You go your way, I'll go mine. I knew you'd be interested in this flower, so I've kept it safe for you to receive. Let me go.
Vera did not send any MSF troops to hunt him down at the time.
If he manages to escape unscathed and survive the global manhunt following the 1998 Raccoon City Incident, after 9/11 Incident, given the scale of the biological weapons trafficking network Brandon built during his time at the Umbrella Institute for Africa, his abilities, aside from Wesker is scouring the world for Spencer's legacy, should not be underestimated.
As for the two former directors of the umbrella department...
As far as Vera knew, they had made contact with the US government before the 21st century and had long since gone straight. A significant number of researchers from both the "white" and "blue" umbrella departments had directly entered the BSAA, or the top-secret organization directly commanded by the US president.
"Now we're truly in complete disarray, both inside and out."
Seeing this, Vera couldn't help but chuckle, smoothing her hair and revealing two decorative gold prosthetic indentations running vertically downwards on her left and right foreheads. These were communication adapters, facilitating synchronized thought processes and the issuance of commands to the Red Queen.
Top-tier stuff from the Cyberpunk.
As the only prosthetic manufacturer in the Resident Evil universe, how could the CEO gain the trust of others if he didn't use his own products? This was something Vera adopted after attending a trust hearing. She had no objections.
Vera picked up the folder again and opened it.
——Operation Boa——
The lower half.
Discussing how to eradicate it once and for all...
As she watched, Vera's expression changed. First, it became amused, her brows furrowed, and her gaze lowered. Then, a cold smile appeared on her lips.
The empty rhetoric in the second half was a waste of time to glance at any more. Vera closed her eyes knowingly and shut down the intelligence documents and tender documents sent by the Pentagon.
Even without the Resident Evil scandal, the Afghan War couldn't have been resolved simply by the Pentagon generals talking.
As a member of the ruling class, she knew all too well the true nature of some members of parliament.
The purpose of the Afghan War was not entirely to conquer Afghanistan. The goal of the members of Congress and the Ansar Jewish financiers hiding behind the government was to use Afghanistan to launder money from the tax base of the United Afghanistan and Europe, and then hand it over to transnational security elites. That was the real objective.
Furthermore, some people at the Pentagon are seeing how much money she's making and want to take advantage of her...
A dark glint flickered in Vera's eyes.
Knock knock knock!
Just then, there was a timely knock on the office door.
"Come in."
Vera said.
[Red Queen] smiled sweetly and thoughtfully adjusted the polarization to partially blur and hide the information projection.
As she entered, the administrative secretary gave a slight bow and softly reminded her, "Ms. Russell, the expo is about to open."
"Okay, just a moment."
Vera waved her hand, signaling to the Red Queen to lock the office mainframe, while she stood up and straightened her clothes.
She grabbed a gold square V-shaped brooch from the table, pinned it to her collar, and then walked out.
The Pentagon's request for military resources to support Afghanistan is not urgent.
The expo is the first Strategic Exhibition Hall for Militech.
She needs to step in and host.
The head of the Red Umbrella Department is Sergei, the head of the Blue Umbrella Department is Christine Henri at the Paris headquarters, and the head of the White Umbrella Department is Jackson Cortlandt.
According to the original game and background settings, they all exist, but they are not mentioned in the game yet. Perhaps they managed to jump ship or board the train when Umbrella collapsed, were recruited by the US, reorganized, and whitewashed into the FBC (Federal Bioterrorism Committee) in the original work.
Capcom didn't explain, I'll just use my own inferences to deduce it.
129
Chapter 129 Vera's Living Billboard of Militech
[Resident Evil]
Central Asia, Afghanistan.
Gardez Mountains.
As dusk fell, the setting sun cast a slanting glow on the barren mountains and Gobi Desert, giving them a bare, yellowish-brown hue.
Call...