Growing Stronger from Arasaka

Some things weighed less than four ounces when left off the scale, but once put on it, even a thousand pounds could not hold them down.

Before Umbrella's scandal broke, what was wrong with the chairman skimming a little money? Afterward, plenty of people in the Western money-driven society would surely sympathize with Vera for being set up by an old bastard like Spencer.

"Someone, prepare the car. I'm going to the airport. I need to fly to Washington."

Vera picked up the receiver and notified the secretariat. As she spoke, her gaze remained fixed on the footage captured by the reconnaissance drone.

The clothes-bursting Pursuer's Nemesis-α parasite had already begun secreting some kind of biochemical substance. It was about to enter its second stage.

"Andreyev, prioritize eliminating that mutating B.O.W. When dealing with B.O.W.s, my AI analysis model recommends destroying them while they are still humanoid. Destroy its head, torso, and parasite. Letting it mutate often means uncontrollable and unknown risks."

Vera could not resist micromanaging a little, using the AI model as an excuse to remind him.

Her underlings had failed to finish it off and were letting the thing "develop." She really could not stand watching it.

"Yes!"

Andreyev's voice came through the receiver from U.S.F. Mobile Team Four.

Boom boom boom boom boom—

Explosions rang out without end, and several surrounding blocks seemed to have descended into a chaotic symphony.

Clang, clang.

The sound of rapid footsteps.

"Hey, miss, your partner is really rich... That thing is a drone, right?... Using drones to carry bombs... When I was at the U.B.C.S. training base, I heard the higher-ups say we might get issued those new things for reconnaissance support. But you know how it is. After being sent here, that plan naturally got canceled..."

Carlos knocked a Zombie climbing over a roadside wire fence to the ground with his rifle butt.

"Buddy, just call me Jill." As she spoke, Jill put another round into the Zombie's head. "I don't know where Chris found this Umbrella unit."

"Okay, Jill."

Carlos said with certainty, "I think your partner must have hitched a ride with the California Division. Only the California Division is this ridiculously well-funded."

As he ran, Carlos looked back toward the sky at the end of the alley. Thick smoke billowed there, explosions continuing without pause. Using bomb-carrying drone swarms to delay those bioweapons... Really, he already had a feeling that on the battlefields of the future, pure infantrymen like him would have it terribly rough.

"Stop looking. We're almost at Raccoon Avenue."

Following Chris's advice, Jill and Carlos took side alleys, cutting through buildings across the blocks as they headed toward Raccoon Avenue. An infected Zombie dog stopped gnawing on a corpse when it heard them. The moment it raised its head, Jill blew it apart with two shots!

Then, boom—!

An especially violent explosion erupted from the blocks behind them. The deafening blast sent a wave of air slamming into their backs. Feeling the tremors through the ground, Jill and Carlos turned around. A mushroom cloud of smoke and flames was rising into the air, shattered gravel falling from the sky like a fading drizzle.

"That's got some kick. Was that an aerial bomb?"

"Fuck!"

On the top floor of a building a hundred meters from Jill's position, a silver-haired man in a U.B.C.S. tactical jacket angrily brushed shattered window glass from his clothes and slammed his fist against the wall.

About fifty meters directly below him, The Pursuer, which had shed its restraint suit and suppression devices and had been mutating and repairing its damaged body half a minute ago, had vanished.

The street had become unrecognizable. Nearby utility poles and roadside trees had been uprooted, while collapsed buildings, scattered rubble, and overturned vehicles left the area in utter ruin, choked with smoke and dust.

As if a demolition hammer had smashed down upon it, the sunken, shattered ground radiating from the blast point was covered in dark-red, charred bloodstains. Several unknown black fragments were mixed in among them, crackling as they burned.

Picking up his radio, he said with a grim expression, "Pursuer-02 has lost all life signs and is completely dead. S.T.A.R.S. member Jill Valentine is still alive. The people coming to meet her have arrived."

Somewhere in eastern Raccoon City.

"What was that?"

"Did the city gas station get blown up?"

"Doesn't sound like it. There was gunfire and a series of explosions just now. Was it U.B.C.S.?"

That explosion, especially piercing and prominent even amid chaotic Raccoon City, made the heavily armed men and women moving through the shadows against the flow toward the city stop in their tracks and look at one another.

They all wore highly personalized rather than standard-issue black Combat Suits, combat boots, protective vests of varying grades, and gas masks. On their shoulders were red-and-white Umbrella insignias.

"Wolf Mother?" They all looked toward the tall woman leading them.

"..." Wolf Mother lowered her head and held down her earpiece, apparently communicating with her superiors. She merely nodded in silence, then raised her head and scanned her teammates. Behind her full-face transparent gas mask, concern seemed to creep onto her expression.

"Everyone, the mission has changed."

In a somewhat hoarse voice, she slowly said, "The U.S.F. forces from the USA California Division have already intervened in Raccoon City. Headquarters is being evasive, but one thing is certain: they are hostile."

"This mission... it seems our Delta team has become involved in a major conflict among the company's upper management."

Raccoon City Main Street.

"Chris, I'm on Raccoon City Main Street!"

The uproar on the streets, the chaotic wire-fence barricades that had been knocked over, and the police cars and ambulances crashing into each other formed an impossible tangle. Having struggled through from the alley, Jill felt increasingly oppressed.

After firing several shots and blasting apart the head of a Zombie crawling out of an overturned vehicle, she followed their agreement, stepped onto the street, and waved toward the building at the coordinates Chris had given her.

Very soon, she saw a signal flare shoot from the top of a building in response.

A black dot rapidly flew toward Jill's location. Just as Jill relaxed, bang!

The gunshot was muffled. Though it had not been aimed at her, Jill immediately crouched down as Carlos pulled her back behind cover. "Aah—!" Accompanied by a pained howl, a figure and a firearm fell from a building across the street, seemingly dead before hitting the ground.

Tank top, tactical vest, Umbrella insignia—it was clearly one of the people who had just tried to silence Jill.

"Fuck! They still want to kill me?"

"Jill, use smoke grenades and move along the street. We've basically cleared out the Zombies for you." The drone had arrived, and Chris's hurried voice came through. He sounded like he was running.

"Okay."

Jill tightened her shoulder straps and exchanged a glance with Carlos. Carlos deployed smoke, and the two ran toward the signal flare.

Bang!!

Bang!!

Muffled gunshots rang out continuously. For the first time, Jill felt utterly at ease. Since entering Raccoon Avenue, she had sensed at least five sniper teams watching over her. Every Zombie that emerged from an alley was immediately shot in the head.

"I see you!"

It did not come from the drone's loudspeaker, but from a shout across the intersection.

Jill looked over in delight. A group of armed personnel appeared, their equipment vastly superior in appearance to every unit she had encountered in Raccoon City. One of them was waving at her.

"Chris, the recon team says those trench-coat-wearing B.O.W.s seem to have removed their restraints and are about to enter Raccoon City Main Street."

"Captain Andreyev told us to avoid them, in case of splash damage and friendly fire."

That was what Jill and Carlos heard as they ran over.

The B.O.W.s were coming?

"Roar!"

Bang! A concrete wall in a side alley off the street was smashed through, wire fencing sent flying. A massive, bluish-black-skinned soldier thundered out. It was a T-103 Tyrant!

Just as Jill was about to warn them, buzz-boom!

A blazing streak came from afar and slammed viciously into the Tyrant, the explosion's surging firelight flickering amid the bloody tears in its bluish-black flesh.

Division

With a piercing howl caused by friction against the air, boom!

The blast erupted less than fifteen meters away. The deafening noise nearly robbed Jill of her hearing.

Plop.

"Fuck!"

Her face twisted in pain as Jill rolled away from the splashing stone fragments and scorching bits of metal.

Whoosh! The explosion's searing heat came with a visible shockwave, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and making everyone instinctively squint.

"Jill, are you okay?" Chris finally rushed over, pulled Jill to her feet, and took up a tactical half-crouch with his weapon, shielding her behind him.

Then he exchanged a brief look and nod with the man beside him, who had climbed back up with messy-looking hair, a thick beard, and a red-and-white Umbrella logo patch on his shoulder.

"What's your name?"

"Carlos Oliveira."

As they spoke, the explosion's flames faded, revealing the T-103 Tyrant almost blown in half and sprawled limply on the ground.

Its entire chest cavity had exploded open!

Beneath its bluish-black skin, bright-red flesh wriggled around broken ribs and a shattered spine. Yet the Tyrant did not die immediately. Instead, it continued letting out a blood-coughing, ferocious roar toward Jill.

Rip! Its remaining muscles swelled and ruptured, spraying blood.

"Again?"

Jill knew how B.O.W.s worked. It was entering its second stage. Yet in the next instant, she did not need to warn anyone. Bang! Another shot, followed by bang bang!!

One shot blew apart its head. A high-energy .50-caliber round punched through its face, exploding its skull and spraying a fan-shaped rain of blood. The remaining half of its lower jaw did not escape either. The second shot obliterated everything above the Tyrant's neck, and the third shattered the last point where its spine and ribs remained connected.

The sound of a pin being pulled and a spoon snapping free rang out. Jill looked over to see a U.S.F. soldier accompanying Chris throw a grenade painted red. Whoosh!

The explosion's astonishing fire and high temperature instantly ignited the Tyrant's remaining flesh.

It was a thermite grenade.

"Stop looking, Jill."

Chris patted Jill on the shoulder, then pointed at her backpack. "The evidence you collected will be taken by designated U.S.F. personnel later. First, retreat to our temporary base in the city and get yourself patched up."

"Whew... Damn, where did you get this ridiculously cool gear? It's got that futuristic cop vibe. Are they all Umbrella?"

Though Chris still had not removed his helmet, the familiar gesture and voice gave Jill, who had narrowly escaped death and just watched that damned B.O.W. die horribly, a rare sense of satisfaction. Her constantly taut nerves relaxed slightly, and she even managed a joke.

Jill would have been lying if she said she was not surprised after seeing Chris in that dark, fully enclosed combat suit.

Damn, a heavy ballistic vest fitted with armor plates, a fully sealed helmet with a professional-grade respiratory filtration mask, an unfamiliar model of night-vision goggles, and everything else. The glowing bands on his arms looked intensely high-tech, along with that massive rifle in his hands.

It resembled Kalashnikov's work in some ways, while also carrying traces of the USA Military's M16 and M4 rifle families. Yet it was undoubtedly heavier and far more angular, with a mechanical beauty belonging to the next generation. Every line was smooth and elegant, displaying unmatched craftsmanship.

And hanging from his thigh at his side was a compact yet enormous large-caliber short-barreled assault shotgun?

"Borrowed it from Russell."

Chris answered frankly.

As he spoke, rat-tat-tat-tat! He fired in a sustained burst. The deep, thunderous reports and muzzle flashes made Jill frown, but Chris and the U.S.F. soldiers beside him had already formed a wall of fire ahead.

"Roar! Roar!!"

Over there, more T-103 Tyrants emerged menacingly from the alley that had been smashed open by tremendous force. They had been left battered and filthy by the drone swarm's delaying attacks.

Carlos instinctively raised his M4A1 carbine and fired several shots.

"Enough, U.B.C.S. kid. Don't come trying to join the fun with that little 5.56mm pea shooter. Those lightly loaded standard rounds meant for urban rescue operations won't do anything to these B.O.W. bioweapons. They won't be tickled to death."