Infinite Progress Starting From Arasaka

She looked at the citizens whose faces turned pale upon hearing her words and sighed helplessly, "I'll find a way to open an escape route for you, but you'll have to walk it yourselves."

With that, Jill put on her gas mask, secured it, and checked the magazine of her submachine gun, codenamed 'Saratoga,' before chambering a round. "Are you coming or not..." she asked Marvin, her final question.

"..." Marvin looked back at his colleagues behind him and the green rookies who had encountered this mess right after joining the force. He gritted his teeth and stomped his foot, "Okay!"

"Carlos!"

Nodding, Jill pushed open the police station doors. Outside, although they didn't have the chance to change into the full M.S.F gear, the UBCS members, all in t-shirts, tactical vests, knee and shoulder pads, and equipped with automatic weapons, were still far superior to the police's pea-shooters and their limited number of short-barreled shotguns.

"Hey, beautiful lady, what can I do for you?"

Carlos, still with his messy hair and unkempt appearance, stood behind the iron fence. He stabbed a zombie in the eye socket with his knife, stirred, and pulled it out.

"The police station is perhaps Raccoon City's last bastion of survivors. We need to protect them as they evacuate."

"OK, guys, let's get to work, let's get to work."

Nodding, Carlos turned and called out to his UBCS comrades who were guarding the perimeter of the police station and clearing the zombie hordes.

"I'll take point."

Carlos grabbed his modified Tactician shotgun, kicked open the main door, and fired. The bloated, rotten skin was penetrated by buckshot, and blood splattered as two charging zombies were sent flying back over a meter.

Da da da.

The light click-clack of gunfire formed a continuous line as bullets flew from the barrels. Jill swept the female zombie hiding behind a vehicle away. Other UBCS members also opened fire, and the dozen or so zombies that had gathered fell like stalks of wheat.

This felt so good.

If the timing were right, Carlos would have whistled.

Although under Vera, their new masters had changed their name to Militech, they were still treated like stepchildren, but at least they had plenty of ammunition.

Those monstrous B.O.W.s were basically wiped out by the M.S.F last night. And new M.S.F troops were constantly arriving, some accompanying military special forces, specifically looking for B.O.W.s and those mutated creatures to test new weapons on.

Da da.

With Jill at the spearhead and the UBCS forming the outer perimeter, the Raccoon City police protected the dozen or so citizens who could still move. The group of over sixty people left the Raccoon City Police Department and headed north along Central Avenue, preparing to enter Raccoon Avenue, where M.S.F troops were stationed to clear out scattered zombies, and then head west out of the city.

Tick-tock—

In the convoy, a handsome white man with a golden middle part, wearing a dark blue RPD field uniform and holding a pistol, was cradling a blonde, blue-eyed young girl. As he ran, he kept comforting her, "Sherry, don't cry, don't be scared. We're safe, we'll definitely be safe."

"But... Big brother, I miss Mommy... Mommy is still at the research institute... She told me to take shelter at the police station, but she didn't come to find me... Daddy, I dreamed Daddy turned into a monster and doesn't want Sherry anymore."

"Watch where you're going! Rookie!"

Just as the young policeman felt disheartened and didn't know what to say, Chief Marvin's roar pulled him back to reality. He quickly took a big stride, his foot landing on a shattered car tire, nearly tripping him.

"Thank you, Chief Marvin."

"Sigh... When this damn cannibal disease broke out, I saw your enlistment letter. I should have made you come a few days later, but before the early stages of the outbreak showed the 'cannibal' symptoms, I was too busy and short-handed. I'm sorry, Leon, for dragging you into this damn hell of Raccoon City."

Black Police Chief Marvin said apologetically and slowed down. "Here, let me hold her for a bit. You rest..."

"I don't want to!"

Sherry buried her head in Leon's arms. Marvin wasn't awkward and smiled, "She seems to like you quite a bit."

"Perhaps it's because when Sherry arrived at the police station, it was too chaotic, and I specifically protected her for a few days."

"Leon." Claire also slowed down at this moment. "Thank you for your help these past few days."

"It's nothing, it's just part of a police officer's duty, even though I'm still a rookie. That's what everyone says."

Leon joked to lighten the mood as he patted the girl's back in his arms.

He had planned to work here long-term after learning he would be coming here, and he had already figured out how to get along with his colleagues. But as soon as he arrived, it was one assignment after another.

There was no time to rest. During that time, he encountered this hiding girl at the police station, and then met Claire, who came to Raccoon City looking for her brother, while on duty outside. Later, it was as if the 'cannibal disease' had completely worsened overnight. They all went mad. He later learned they had been infected with some kind of virus...

Just then, "Stop!"

Jill, at the front, suddenly crouched as they passed through a small alley and switched her weapon from the submachine gun to a shotgun. Click!

A slug was chambered. Through her three-eyed infrared night vision goggles, whose model she didn't know, she clearly saw the silhouette of an orange-red deformed crawling creature and, in the corner, a crouching humanoid silhouette?

"Come out!"

In the alley, blood foam erupted from the deformed crawling creature!

"Shit! It's the U.S.F bitch!"

"Don't shoot, it's a living person. You win."

A group of six people, men and women in black combat uniforms, all injured with bandages, covered in blood and dust, walked out of the alley.

"Umbrella's?!"

Upon seeing the red and white umbrella-shaped insignia on their shoulders, Jill's voice immediately rose several decibels.

"Aren't you also from Umbrella? Oh, you're Militech now, M.S.F."

The leader, a middle-aged woman wearing a transparent full-face mask and possessing a distinguished demeanor, spoke, "We are the U.S.S Delta Squad. Following Director Vera Adelheid's proposal, we accepted it."

"What proposal?"

At this, the people from Delta Squad were stunned. "You don't know?"

"What should I know?"

Jill still hadn't lowered her gun, and the two sides remained in a tense standoff.

Leon put Sherry down and looked at the scene in confusion until— "Ah, it seems the lucky outsiders don't understand." A mature female voice, slightly hoarse, approached him, carrying a fragrant scent. Leon's face flushed, and he took a step back.

"Miss Ada… do you know something?"

This capable, red-clad Asian woman was someone he had rescued from outside a few hours ago. She claimed she was looking for something belonging to her boyfriend in Raccoon City, so he had brought her back to the Raccoon City Police Department. During that time, she had been well-behaved, aside from her habit of teasing him.

"Ah, so cute."

Unknowingly, Ada took a few steps closer to Sherry and then, with lightning speed, yanked off Sherry's necklace. She pulled out a grappling hook gun, and with a swish, her figure soared into the air towards the rooftop.

Leon was still in a daze.

"Who's there?!" Carlos reacted and opened fire, but he didn't hit anything. After a few agile swings, the figure had vanished without a trace.

This left Jill, who was confronting Delta Squad, even more bewildered.

What's going on?

Just then, thump! thump!

More than ten figures landed steadily from the second floor, making muffled thuds. "Ms. Valentine, step back." As he spoke, he stepped forward to separate Jill from Delta Squad. Although their uniforms weren't much different from Jill's, any discerning eye could see a completely different aura about them.

"Lupo, you made the right choice," he said.

"The main players have finally arrived? It seems Director Vera Adelheid has gained the upper hand in this internal dispute within the former company. The board actually dared to assign us the mission to 'cleanse' Raccoon City survivors."

The woman called Lupo said with self-mockery.

"You know then. Come with us, rendezvous with Alpha Squad, and evacuate Raccoon City. The executive wants to see you."

"Are there still people alive in Alpha Squad?"

"Yes, and not just the Grim Reaper Hunk."

After confiscating their weapons, these true M.S.F Mobile Unit soldiers gestured for the Delta Squad members to follow obediently, keeping an eye on them as they quickly walked towards Raccoon Avenue in the northwest.

The leading M.S.F commander reflexively scanned the crowd of survivors. "Hmm?" He stopped.

His gaze fell upon the girl who was crying because her necklace had been snatched.

"What are you doing?!"

Claire immediately stepped forward to intervene, but an M.S.F Mobile Unit soldier flung her back two or three meters with an arm, sending her sitting on the ground.

"Sherry Birkin, daughter of Raccoon City Umbrella's chief researcher William Birkin and Annette Birkin." He stepped forward, gazing at the girl before him, and spoke word by word.

"Take her!"

"Hey, hey, gentlemen, we can talk… hiss…"

"Don't meddle, rookie! We have far more sense than you think."

With one hand, he pressed the young Leon down, rendering him unable to move. Leon let out a pained grunt. The man's palm… it didn't feel like it, it was a vise! It was too hard! It made his shoulder bones ache.

Releasing Leon, and ignoring Sherry's cries, he picked her up. "Your mother Annette has been rescued, but due to your special status, Executive Vera Adelheid wishes to see you."

"No, I don't want to… I don't want to see Vera Adelheid. She's a bad person, the one who made my dad ignore me, stop coming home, and stop loving me! I don't want to! It's because of her…"

After injecting a small dose of tranquilizer with a slight anesthetic effect, causing the girl to fall asleep, he pressed his earpiece, dialed a secret frequency, and spoke in a voice inaudible to outsiders as he walked quickly forward.

"BOSS, mission accomplished. G-Creature 'William' has been eliminated, showing no signs of life. The remains were incinerated at high temperature. The Raccoon City mission objectives have also been largely cleared. Special target Ada Wong was let go as per your orders. Over."

"Very good."

Vera's cold voice came through the earpiece.

"Operation concluded. Withdraw from Raccoon City in an orderly fashion. This city has no further value. This kind of rescue PR stunt isn't worth deploying you for; it would be a waste."

Sigh, feels like I'm back to those late nights of working… Cough, it's a bit late, sorry.

Chapter 038 Vera is a 'Conscientious' Capitalist

In just half a day, Vera's orders were effectively implemented.

The M.S.F, inheriting the highly centralized command style of the CCCP and KGB before 1991, operated with extreme efficiency. After picking up the largest group of survivors stranded at the Raccoon City Police Department, the M.S.F outpost on Raccoon Avenue in the west of the city began to withdraw, with personnel gradually pulling out of the urban area.

Vera's acquired Umbrella Pharmaceutical plant in Colorado, upon receiving the finished T-Virus inhibitors transferred by the M.S.F, immediately worked overtime. The first batch of special rain-inducing rockets filled with inhibitors had already arrived in the outskirts of Raccoon City.

Search and rescue helicopters, painted with MILITECH's new logo—black with yellow stripes and a V shape nested within a square—circled the city, continuously broadcasting that the 'Raccoon City Emergency Sterilization Operation' had received approval from both the House and Senate, and the Presidential Order had officially taken effect.

Many mainstream USA media outlets were invited to witness the horrific devastation on the ground from the large fleet of search and rescue helicopters dispatched by Militech.

The live broadcast showed: burning buildings, abandoned vehicles, bloody corpses, wandering zombies…

This silenced many social activists who had vehemently protested the idea of dropping a nuclear bomb on their own country, especially the residents of Colorado. Their attitude shifted almost 180 degrees, from protesting to supporting the operation.

They thought it was an exaggeration, but it turned out to be true, and it could still get worse!

It would be better to destroy this thing with a nuclear bomb than let it escape and harm people.

And Vera, of course, wouldn't miss such a good opportunity for propaganda. The aerial view from the helicopters showed numerous M.S.F soldiers escorting survivors out of Raccoon City; some soldiers were holding young children, and some were rescuing citizens from the mouths of zombies…

The sight of the U.B.C.S. soldiers, despite wearing Umbrella's red and white umbrella armbands, all injured while working in Raccoon City to combat biological disasters, also increased the online discussion about Umbrella not being entirely evil.

Vera would absolutely not admit that the IP addresses of the users who quoted and made these statements were located in California.

The effects were immediate; the criticism Washington and the White House faced gradually disappeared.

Vera's former senior colleague from the House of Representatives, who was now the Speaker, privately sent a 'thumbs up'. Simmons, as the proponent of 'nuclear sterilization', also expressed his gratitude.

Her subjective attempts to exonerate herself objectively eased Simmons' pressure considerably.

Hum... hum...

In the early morning of September 27th, at night, the engine sounds of vehicles starting and the whooshing roars of special rain-inducing rockets being fired had already echoed for over half an hour. At the Militech evacuation point on Acre Scenic Avenue in the west of the city, Chris stood quietly in the rain, listening to the piercing wind.

The sobbing of passing survivors, the loud shouts of CDC inspection personnel, the sirens of the state police maintaining order, the roaring of vehicles from the National Guard setting up the blockade...

"Brother."

Claire, wearing a raincoat, approached him. Her heroic yet weary pretty face was filled with worry.

"I'm fine, Claire."

Chris took off his helmet. He turned sideways. Two days and one night of continuous fighting had left his hair very messy, his beard unshaven, his eye sockets sunken, his complexion pale, his lips dry, and a hint of vacancy in his expression. He looked exceptionally haggard.

Claire emphasized, "You should get some good sleep!"

"Forget it, Claire, you won't convince him. He'll definitely say, 'I've already stayed up this long, no need to rush now.'" Jill walked over at this moment. She had already changed out of her M.S.F. protective suit and was wearing a raincoat, holding a bottle of mineral water. She gently patted Claire's shoulder before tossing the mineral water to Chris.