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♦ Topic: A New Thread

In: Boards ► Raccoon City ► Raccoon City Incident

PapaDunce (Original Poster)

Posted On Oct 31st 1998:

Okay, so now that the dust has begun to settle, I'm posting a mega-thread to compile what we know. Which can roughly be summarized as 'don't trust the megacorporations' and 'when in doubt, big robot.' But, for those that are more detail-oriented, here is the breakdown:

August 17: The first reports of a so-called 'Cannibal Virus' start making the rounds in Raccoon City. They are largely dismissed as isolated incidents, with the initial theories being a serial rabies incident.

August 25: Medical specialists from Umbrella are called into the city to contain the outbreak. Reports of the cannibal disease are on the rise and being treated at Umbrella specialist facilities.

August 28: Reported incidents of the Cannibal Virus make a sharp downturn. Initial assumption that the outbreak was being contained, but as evidence posted: Here, Here, Here, and Here -- the incidents were only going unreported and were on the rise.

August 30: Unannounced, the US Government issues a quarantine around Raccoon City. Flights are rerouted. Highways undergo strange and unannounced roadwork. Reports of troops being mobilized in strategic containment locations to be found: Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, and Here.

September 1: Hospitals are being flooded with unexplained symptoms, which follow: Headache, fever, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and numbness in extremities. Umbrella facilities are being overrun with sick patients.

September 10: Umbrella facilities are overrun with inpatients. Raccoon General Hospital sees a dramatic increase as well, beginning at the 10th and continuing to the 18th. At this point, Cannibal Disease was not considered as a possibility, possibly due to the Umbrella crushing the rumors or because medical staff had only dealt with late-stage infection and couldn't identify the early stages.

September 11: First known sighting of 'Rudeus Rain.' Seen handing out informative business cards of a safe haven that he would soon create in the Metro Station.

September 13: Second known sighting of Rudeus Rain, who is seen ordering 'three metric butt loads' of informative pamphlets that he would then spread throughout the city. According to the poster: Here, Rudeus was also seen fleeing from the cops for being a public nuisance by assailing people with pamphlets while screaming, 'Words won't kill you, but the undead will!'

September 15: The US Military begins conducting an evacuation of targeted areas under the guise of claiming that there is a radiation leak from the Raccoon City power plant. Additionally, there is an increasing number of reports of criminal activity, which is now assumed to be the Cannibal Virus.

September 18: The Military expands its operations and evacuations.

September 23: As disclosed in the trial that will be elaborated on later, the 'Cannibal Virus’, thus dubbed the ‘T-Virus' makes its way into Raccoon City's water supply. This coincides with the Rascals vs Sharks baseball game, in which a large number of people entered the final stages of infection.

This, in turn, caused a massive influx of the infected within the city. Hundreds, if not thousands, poured into the unprepared streets, and all efforts of containment immediately failed.

Rudeus Rain, in addition to Chris Redfield, Marvin Branagh are recorded as being on scene: Here and Here. (Poor camera footage, but people were understandably running for their lives.) They were seen attempting to stem the flow of infected, but were stopped when Codename: Nemesis showed up.

September 24: The safe haven that Rudeus had advertised in advance was further secured by the RCPD. Additionally, secondary havens are established at the Police Headquarters and several other satellite sites.

As reported, several containment measures were implemented by Rudeus' recommendation, henceforth called Red Zones. Evacuations are being conducted in an organized manner.

Meanwhile, Rudeus descends into Umbrella's 'Hives' with former STARS member Jill Valentine. In doing so, they kill a number of escaped bioweapons as seen in footage: Here, Here, Here. They emerge with key witness Dr. Annette Birkin and the cure for the T-Virus.

During this time, Police Chief Irons vanishes without a trace in the Police Station, suspected of having fled. Rudeus places himself in charge of evacuation.

September 25: Further securing the city is underway until several Red Zones are compromised by Umbrella operatives. To prevent a setback, the infected are herded into Raccoon City Stadium.

There is an attempted assassination on Rudeus Rain, but he survives it.

At the same time, there is an attempted assassination of key witness Dr. Birkin, but when it fails, the assailants kidnap her daughter, Sherry Birkin. This leads to an altercation at Raccoon City Highschool, where Rudeus and STARS retrieve Sherry.

All of it seems to be a distraction because a KAIJU MONSTER erupts from the sewers. Proof is: Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here. Evidence indicates that it is Nemesis, which was deliberately mutated by Umbrella to grow absurdly big with the apparent directive of wiping out the safe havens and to force the US military to nuke Raccoon City, thus destroying any evidence that they were responsible for the outbreak in the first place.

A plan that might have worked if it weren't for GIANT ROBOTS. Proof is: Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, and Here. These GIANT ROBOTS shot a LASER BEAM that bisected the city and vaporized the KAIJU MONSTER. Not enough, sadly enough, as seen: Here and Here. The giant monster was pulling itself together, which required the noble sacrifice of one of the GIANT ROBOTS.

In the immediate aftermath, Rudeus Rain, Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, along with several others vanished from the city when the US government decided that no one could have weapons of mass destruction but them and moved into the city to secure them. They have not been seen since.

September 28: While at this stage there were rumors circling around about Raccoon City, the US government was doing an excellent job of hushing it all up. The people would be informed regardless due to the valiant efforts of Alyssa Ashcroft and Terri Morales, who documented the 'Raccoon City Incident', and the footage found its way online.

Cue outrage from the American people. Riots and protests swept the nation in a demand for answers and accountability.

Meanwhile, there are numerous raids on Umbrella-owned facilities by the US military. However, the vast majority of the division and facility leaders are nowhere to be found. The entire upper brass vanished into the night and their whereabouts are currently unknown.

September 30: International headquarters are similarly raided by the local governments: the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Turkey, China, Japan, and Korea. However, much like in America, the top brass ran and their whereabouts are currently unknown.

October 15: The public trial of Umbrella officially begins, and it is a dog-and-pony show to throw all the blame on Umbrella. Key witness Dr. Birkin comes forward and helps dig Umbrella's grave in return for witness protection. Ie, getting Paperclipped.

October 30: Trial concludes after a mere fifteen days. Umbrella is formally declared a terrorist organization, with charges pending for individual members of Umbrella who were actually caught.

And there we are. My two cents? It feels like the world went absolutely insane over the course of two months. Even setting aside the near zombie apocalypse, kaiju monsters, and giant robots, Umbrella was a titan in the medical industry. My medicine cabinet was full of their products, and that's true for most of the world. Now, they're an enemy of the state, and they were apparently creating bio-weapons, conducting human experiments, and who knows what else?

It doesn't feel real. It feels like I stepped into the Twilight Zone where one of the most reputable companies on the planet was a disguise for a mustache-twirling, comically evil megacorporation.

(Showing page 1 of 2)

►Answer Key

Replied On Oct 31st 1998:

Glad that someone finally compiled this insanity in one place so I can try to make sense of it. And even with it written down -- no, still doesn't make sense.

►Lolitup

Replied On Oct 31st 1998:

I don't understand why everyone is celebrating this Rudeus guy -- he was clearly in on it in some way. Why didn't he go to the police? Or call the FBI? Anything feels more useful than throwing fliers at people.

►Kriketz

Replied On Oct 31st 1998:

@ Lolitup, Maybe it has something to do with the rampant corruption in the US government? Like, there has to be just... awe inspiring amounts of corruption to explain half of this shit. The FBI, CIA, or what the fuck ever really had NO idea about the two giant underground bases in Raccoon City?

Fuck me. Either everyone in the government is on the take, or they are an idiot. No in between.

►Chrome

Replied On Oct 31st 1998:

@ Kriketz, more like they're in on it. No way that the US, or any other nation, wasn't buying their product. It had me re-reading the old Cold War threads about some of the rumors that were dismissed.

Found some gems: Link, Link, and Link. Sound familiar?

►BadSamurai

Replied On Oct 31st 1998:

I respected Rudeus for the first half. The whole thing is insane, but could you imagine knowing that an apocalypse is happening and no one will believe you about it? That's some real Oracle Cassandra type of curse.

But then he blew up the giant robot named Dakka. He should have let the kaiju monster kill us all.

►Xyloloup

Replied On Oct 31st 1998:

There's no way that this whole mess doesn't trace its roots right to the Soviets' feet. This has the KGB's fingerprints all over it.

►Antigone

Replied On Oct 31st 1998:

So, what I'm hearing is... we could have had a zombie apocalypse, and this guy stopped it? What an asshole.

►Lolitup

Replied On Oct 31st 1998:

@ Kriketz, Okay, sure. I'll accept that for not going to the police. But the guy had giant robots this entire time? Why didn't he... I dunno, use them?

►Ekul

Replied On Oct 31st 1998:

I live near Raccoon City, and I knew SOMETHING was up. There were jackboots coming too and from for at least a week before the official quarantine came in.

And, gotta say -- it's not a real vote of confidence that some random guy, his pet robot, and some plucky friends made along the way did more to unfuck the situation than the military did.

End of Page.   1

(Showing page 2 of 168)

►BadSamurai

Replied On Oct 31st 1998:

@ Antigone, Dude, have a little tact. Thousands of people died. Ballpark estimates are north of twenty thousand. And most of them didn't go gently into that good night. They got ripped apart and died screaming, possibly at the hands of their friends and family.

A zombie apocalypse is all fun and games until you realize that those zombies used to be people.

►Antigone

Replied On Oct 31st 1998:

@ BadSamurai, Pussy.

►Thatdude

Replied On Oct 31st 1998:

@ Chrome, Well, that's vaguely horrifying. Honestly, I'm a little scared to go down this rabbit hole. Like... During the Cold War, the US and the Soviets were fighting each other in everyone else's backyard. I'm from one of those places, and I grew up with horror stories about monsters that the US or Soviets had fighting for them.

Now I'm really wondering if those were just stories.

►Chrome

Replied On Oct 31st 1998:

@ Thatdude, I'm not sure if we'll ever know. Still, it's really scary that something like this could happen anywhere, much less underneath your own two feet.

►Iblis

Replied On Oct 31st 1998:

@ Antigone, Fuck you. I'm from Raccoon City. The only reason I wasn't there when it all went down was that I was visiting a college I was planning to attend. Instead, I'm planning funerals for my mom and dad while trying to figure out where I'm going to live because my house is condemned in the city.

Seriously, go fuck yourself.

[TinMom: Giving a warning for this post, but no infraction points. Sorry for your loss, but dial back the hostility.]

►ArchmageEin

Replied On Oct 31st 1998:

I'm curious about this Rudeus guy. I've scoured the threads for any real information about him, but as far as anyone can tell, the guy just popped up in Raccoon City screaming at the top of his lungs what was going to happen.

Which is weird, but then he has a small robot. Then two big robots that can wipe a city off the map.

►SilverInHand

Replied On Oct 31st 1998:

@ ArchmageEin, I'm more interested in where he is now. The military didn't so much as drop the ball in Raccoon City as they launched it to the center of the earth. I'm glad that he was there to stop this in its tracks.

But the idea that some random guy having weapons that can wipe out an entire city isn't exactly comforting.

►Poit

Replied On Oct 31st 1998:

Wait, this website has mods now? Ew.

►Deimos

Replied On Oct 31st 1998:

What I'm struggling with is the fact that it was a whole ass GLOBAL conspiracy going on. I don't know how it wasn't mentioned in the timeline, but heads have been rolling left and right across the planet.

Everyone important within Umbrella? They were way gone before the governments could even think to make a move, and you KNOW that they took whatever made that giant monster stuff with them. The ones that got caught were either not important enough to get dissapeared, didn't know anything, or were too stupid to cut and run like the rest.

Meaning all that stuff is out there now.

■

♦ Topic: A New Thread

In: Boards ► Weird Watch ► General

Mock Moniker (Original Poster)

Posted On Apr 1st 1999:

Have you seen these photos of Antarctica that have been circulating? Can anyone tell me if they're doctored in some way or explain what exactly I'm looking at?

Edit: Link, Link, and Link

(Showing page 1 of 2)

►Noveltry

Replied On Apr 1st 1999:

It'd help if you posted the pictures that we're supposed to be looking at lol

► Mock Moniker

Replied On Apr 1st 1999:

@ Noveltry, my bad. Here they are: Link, Link, Link

►Miraclemic

Replied On Apr 1st 1999:

There is no way that that's a normal formation. No way. That's a perfect sphere. Check out the math: Link.

►Poit

Replied On Apr 1st 1999:

Okay. That's pretty weird. To your questions of what could have done this? I have absolutely no idea, so I'm leaning towards the idea that the photos were doctored in some way. Where did you get them?

►Mock Moniker

Replied On Apr 1st 1999:

@ Poit, A friend of mine works in Antarctica at a research facility. When she was sailing in, they went by that point but didn't have any way to explain it.

She also gave me these, which are photos of the same area a year earlier. Link and Link.

►BigBone

Replied On Apr 1st 1999:

Weapons testing? But I struggle to think of something that could do that kind of damage. According to @ Miraclemic's math, which I double checked, that's roughly half a mile of ice vanishing, cutting what looked like a perfect sphere.

►HiveMind

Replied On Apr 1st 1999:

Clearly aliens. Not even sure what you people are trying to rationalize here -- something took a bite out of Antarctica. Humans don't have the tech to do something like this. The answer is obvious.

►Deadman

Replied On Apr 1st 1999:

I hate agreeing with @ HiveMind on anything, but I do in this case. I don't t hink this is something like a weapons test. Antarctica is way out of the way, but people still go there. Not sure where you would test a weapon like that, but I'm sure the US and UN have all sorts of places that they keep off the map for this purpose.

Instead, I think that this was a live use of a weapon. Possibly alien in origin. Maybe from whatever mothership that crashed down and gave the samples that Umbrella have been infecting us with for decades.

►Coyote-C

Replied On Apr 1st 1999:

@ Deadman, for the last time -- Umbrella wasn't infecting us with alien biology. There is no evidence to prove that the 'T-Virus' is anything extraterrestrial.

End of Page.   1

(Showing page 2 of 2)

►SenorEel

Replied On Apr 1st 1999:

@ Coyote-C, That they declassified. You want to look me in the eyes and tell me it's normal to produce biological mass from thin air, buddy?

►Mock Moniker

Replied On Apr 1st 1999:

Setting the alien debate aside -- I do think that there is something really weird going on here. There is absolutely no way that the formation is natural, but I have absolutely no idea how it could have been made. It's like everything around a central point got erased, because there aren't any indications of an explosion or a vacuum being created from something like a nuke.

So, what does that even leave?

►Deadman

Replied On Apr 1st 1999:

Aliens.

End of Page.   1, 2

■

♦ Topic: A New Thread

In: Boards ►

PapaDunce (Original Poster)

Posted On May 1st 2000:

It's been a year since Umbrella went under, and the top brass went scurrying like rats. And, with them, there have been a number of unexplained occurrences that have transpired across the world.

Chunks of landmass are missing, videos and pictures of what seem to be nearly invisible aircraft that have been sending the alienbro community insane. Or insaner. All of which seem to be connected to resurgences in the remnants of Umbella, such as the SunnySails Cruise incident, a reported outbreak in Dagastan, a deliberate outbreak from a terrorist group in New York to name a few.

From all corners of the world, people have been theory-crafting, guessing, and trying to piece together a puzzle without half the pieces. All to figure out what connected to what and why. Today, however, we have our answer.

Today, at 12 AM, Tricell was targeted worldwide by a mysterious group that no one was able to verify existed until now. The cloaked UFOs? The unexplained missing landmass? All of them were seen in action, in addition to several other... revelations, I think I'll call them. @ Bagman did a pretty good job of hunting down the footage worldwide, so I'll link his post: Link.

For those who don't like robots and explosions, here is the summary. Tricell was attacked at every single international headquarters around the globe, and within the hour, much like Umbrella years prior, the entire company was gutted. This operation, it seems, was unauthorized by any government, but it has been taken advantage of when irrefutable proof flooded the internet that Tri-cell was getting up to the same no good that Umbrella was.

To the point that there were hundreds of former Umbrella members in Tri-Cell's R&D division. With the fall of Umbrella, it seemed like Tri-Cell cornered the market, something our mystery organization has taken issue with. But, unlike what happened with Umbrella, the top brass didn't get a chance to cut and run. All notable members of its corporate structure have been apprehended and accounted for.

(Showing page 1 of 364)

►Good Ship Morpheus

Replied On May 1st 2000:

Bruh. This is the second time the company that sells me band-aids has been linked to mass-producing bio-weapons of mass destruction.

►CaffeineFiend

Replied On May 1st 2000:

Look, I'm the first to point and laugh at the alien nuts, but I'm about to become a believer -- look at that. What even is that? Mobile armor that flies and shoots big guns and missiles?

I'm not convinced that this is a human military group. They're clearly aliens that decided we're too stupid to have nice things.

►Space Zombie

Replied On May 1st 2000:

I've been on some of the other highlight threads, and it's pretty damning. Tricell boosted hundreds when Umbrella went under, and they're behind dozens of T-Virus-related outbreaks across the world since then. It's a very good thing that they were brought down, but I'm worried about who brought them down.

We know absolutely nothing about them beyond the fact that they have been active for the past few years. Seemingly combating Tricell wherever they let a monster out of a petri-dish. We don't know their name, what kind of tech they have, or who is bankrolling them -- only that they're large and organized to decapitate a global corporation in the span of an hour.

►GunNut

Replied On May 1st 2000:

Tricell being up to no good is scary, sure. But when Umbrella fell, I always assumed someone picked up the slack.

What really concerns me is the organization that took them down. Cloaking tech? It sounds easy, but it's monstrously difficult to pull off. I've reviewed all the footage -- the glimpses of the aircraft seemed to be from a previous iteration, because there was no sign of them before they revealed themselves. Meaning that they have perfect stealth tech. The kind when you could be in the room with them, and you wouldn't know it.

The second part that alarms me are those suits. The US, China, and everyone else have been trying to workshop power armor since WWII, but we've never come close. The idea is simple in principle, but actually creating a wearable suit of armor that can handle the punishment of combat has always been too costly and too complicated for field use.

Whoever they are, they solved that issue, and they built upon it. Look at the footage -- they straight up ate sustained gunfire from a dozen different sources. The paint was barely scratched. What's more, not only are they similarly outfitted with the cloaking tech, but they can fly and pack a punch. Whatever they're firing tore through modern body armor like it wasn't even there. To say nothing of the homing bullets.

What we have is an extremely advanced rogue organization of at least a hundred strong. Likely more.

►Aloha

Replied On May 1st 2000:

Are we sure the suits are human operated? They could just be robots. Not really sure that's much better, but it's possible.

►BagRat

Replied On May 1st 2000:

@ Aloha, They're most likely human-operated. If they were machines, then it would be more efficient to have them in the six-foot range rather than the nearly seven-foot range that they are. That, and in the footage, their movements seem human when they interact.

►BigBoned

Replied On May 1st 2000:

Gotta say, I really miss the days when all I had to worry about was rent and the Cold War going Hot. Now I find out for the second time that every time I bought cough medicine for the flu, I was inadvertently funding a highly illegal bio-weapon research grant and terrorism.

I can only hope that when I bought Duveo TV, I was also funding the mysterious organization with stealth planes and robots.

►SwissCheese

Replied On May 1st 2000:

I work in the security sector, and I can't even describe the kind of panic that everyone is feeling right now. At first, I figured it would be a black ops team acting on someone's orders but the reaction to Tricell's downfall is so messy that I genuinely don't think anyone saw it coming. Not the FBI, CIA, M15, or any other of the alphabet organization.

Which means that there is a rogue organization with beyond bleeding edge technology. If anyone knows anything about them, then they're keeping it to themselves.

►Hairball

Replied On May 1st 2000:

Look, I get that they're scary robot people but I think that people are overreacting a little bit to the big guns. Instead, look at who they targeted -- Tricell, who, much like Umbrella, pretended to be a run of the mill big pharm company. When, in reality, they were conducting illegal experiments on humans, murder, kidnapping, and a whole slew of other crimes to facilitate all the horrible human experimentation.

Being worried about them is one thing, but I'm not sure that they're the bad guys here.

End of Page.   1, 2, 3 ... 362, 363, 364

(Showing page 2 of 364)

►PencilHolser

Replied On May 1st 2000:

@ Hairball, I see where you're coming from but it's an unprecedented level of power in non-government hands. Provided that the disavowment isn't just for show.

Like, this is a wild level of firepower in unregulated hands. I'd honestly prefer a nuke, because at least then, we'd know when they used it.

Instead, they have armor that's seemingly impervious to small arms fire. So, it's a tank that can fly and go invisible.

►Vagrant

Replied On May 1st 2000:

@ Hairball, I'm with you on this one. Tricell and Umbrella were both evil. Even beyond the standardized evil capitalist corporations operate at. Likewise Rudeus Rain did, these guys tore Tricell down to the bedrock. The government either didn't know, so they're incompetent, or they did, and they're complicit.

Yeah, they have a lot of fire power. Yeah, they killed to bring Tricell down. But I'm not going to shed any tears for people who kidnapped kids off the streets and experimented on them. Don't let the naysayers convince you that this was anything less than a good thing.

►CheesyFingers

Replied On May 1st 2000:

@ Vagrant, anti-capitalist sentiment aside, you brought up a really good point.

A bit of a recap -- A few years ago, a man named Rudeus Rain was largely credited for the downfall of Umbrella in the aftermath of the Raccoon City Incident. Which culminated in him shooting a giant monster with a railgun that vaporized half a city and blew up one of his giant robots.

Now, look at the armor and look at ‘Dakka’: Link.

See it? Same kind of railgun.

And, to note, Rudeus Rain vanished in the aftermath of Raccoon City, along with several other key figures that saved tens of thousands in the city.

►Nimrod

Replied On May 1st 2000:

I'm seconding the Rudeus Rain theory. His activities were pretty well documented in Raccoon City, and the man hated Umbrella with the passion of ten thousand suns. Umbrella goes down, but it's messy. Most of the important figures in the company escape justice and fuck off to continue what they were doing in Umbrella, with most of them going to Tricell. So, he keeps his head down for a few years, builds up resources and connections, and in Round 2, he knocks them flat on their ass.

There is enough overlap. The railgun, as others pointed out, but there were also the rocket shoes in the stadium round up, when an Umbrella sniper nearly killed him.

►CheesyFingers

Replied On May 1st 2000:

@ Nimrod, I cant believe I forgot about the rocket shoes. Yeah, the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. For whatever reason, Rudeus has it out for Umbrella, and Tricell were doing the exact same things.

►LostSock

Replied On May 1st 2000:

That feels like a bit of a stretch. Not saying that he's not involved, but making what was some guy screaming his head off about the zombie apocalypse the mastermind of a global organization feels a bit much. I could buy him being affiliated.

►StockBro

Replied On May 1st 2000:

Well… I'm never going to financially recover from this. Goodbye early retirement.

►NegativeNancy

Replied On May 1st 2000:

Given that this is the SECOND DAMN TIME that a global pharmaceutical company had been running an extremely illegal bio-weapon testing lab in their basement, I feel like some regulation is in order.

Because I swear to fuck, if this happens a third time, I'm buying a cabin the the woods and never going to contact another humsn being again.

►Deadman

Replied On May 1st 2000:

@ CheesyFingers, That's a real big assumption to make. The technology is way beyond anything we've seen. What's more likely -- some guy blitzing through the tech tree or the machine men are aliens to safeguard humanity from our hubris?

►LostSock

Replied On May 1st 2000:

@ Deadman, the first one. By a lot. Like… a lot a lot.

But, I will give you this -- the T-Virus and its derivatives are weird. I'd sooner believe that they were alien in nature given how they mutate and generate mass out of nothing.

Personally, I think the T-Virus is an alien disease that landed on earth. Possibly on the meteor that killed the dinosaurs.

End of Page.   1, 2, 3, 4 ... 362, 363, 364

…

“The past few years have been… productive,” I mused to myself, leaning into my chair before I spun around to overlook my workshop. One of a few that I had established across the world. I chose locations that were naturally isolated, but with spatial-folding magitech a broom closet could become a Umbrella style secret base. The one I was currently at was near Portland, Oregon -- lots of nature trails, lots of rocky mountains, and lots of forests. 

As far as anyone was aware, my cabin in the woods was a regular hunting cabin. None would suspect the massive underground facility that lay underneath. 

It was nice, on occasion, to catch up on the global consensus of the madness that had gripped the world over the past five years. Most of it was a bunch of dumb kids posting online, reacting to a world that slowly became more and more dangerous with every passing day. They made theories, they guessed, and they hoped all in an attempt to make sense of it all. It was also important to see the mistakes that I made as my secret organization was becoming less secret as more overt action became necessary. 

“Its because they're getting too bold,” I heard Chris say from a floor down. The underground base was something of a loft arrangement -- it was one massive room with the lower floor being an engineering bay while the top half was where I kept my more sensitive projects and computers. “They feel like they're getting their feet underneath them again.” 

“I don't like that,” I admitted, grabbing a well loved mug of coffee that went cold, but an unhealthy amount of sugar made it taste good anyway. “That tells me that they found something to give them their confidence back,” I replied, pushing my chair back and letting it roll to the railing to see Chris tinkering with an engine. 

“Anything on your malware empire?” He asked, taking an engine block off and giving it a quick inspection. 

“No hits so far,” I said, liking that even less. 

Five years was a long time. A very long time. It didn't feel like it. And in the grand scheme of things, five years was barely a blip on a timeline. It was kinda like how five hundred dollars wasn’t a lot to have, but it was a lot to pay -- especially when there was no shortage of events and fees. 

Storm had been busy. I had been busy. 

The Rockfort Island and Antarctic base had been something of a bust when it came to information about the Umbrella splinter organizations. In the time since, primarily in our first year of activity, we found and eliminated no less than a dozen ‘Neo-Umbrellas.’ Some took root in government institutions, who had wanted a leg up on the competition and the bio-weapon arms race now that the world’s top supplier was removed, leaving a void to fill. 

Others remained independent, concentrating assets around hidden facilities that were off the books and usually off the grid. Those were the real thorns in our side as Umbrella was particularly gifted at losing assets with their schizophrenic record keeping, with many only being discovered because the divisions within Umbrella were spying on each other in a competition for funding. 

After that first year ended, what I feared would happen occurred. The splinters took root and began to grow -- they only exposed themselves when it came to selling their bio-weapons, and they took great lengths to avoid leaving a trail that could lead back to them. They knew that they were being hunted, even if they didn't know if it was by their competition, a world government, or us. It made finding them slower, but not impossible. The Neo-Umbrella's needed funds to grow after all.

And as much as I hated it -- and I really, really, really hated it -- the competition was fierce. Umbrella had the bio-weapon market firmly under their thumb, with the exception of Tri-cell. And by the second year, we’d gutted that company too. That meant that the price of a bio-weapon that could wipe a city off the face of the Earth was comparatively low, practically cheap. Meaning that if they wanted their finances to remain in the black, they needed a steady stream of purchases, and that was something I could track. 

My various enterprises had taken off over the past five years -- a mixture of next generation tech at below market price ensured that the companies I sponsored were quickly catapulted to a peer of the global competition. We weren't dominating yet, but I'd give it a few more years before my products were the natural choice over the competition. 

But, even without total global domination of various ‘free’ markets, I still had a very wide net cast across the internet and dark web. I had spy satellites in orbit now that gave me a 12k view of every inch of the planet with a system of virtual intelligence bots trawling through every byte of data for a clue as to the next fire that Umbrella was trying to start in the hopes of burning the whole world down to rule over the ashes or whatever. 

Now, five years later, my chosen methods of information gathering were becoming less effective even as they became more efficient. Which told me that the various cells of Neo-Umbrella were finding the holes in my net and slipping through. 

“So far,” Chris said, his tone hopeful. “But, we're both racing towards the same finish line. So long as we beat them there? We win.” 

“That's the hope,” I said, standing up and rolling my chair back to my desk that was covered in a dozen mounted monitors that continued to shift through an enormous stream of data. “The Progenitor Virus is their equivalent to the Holy Grail. With the source material… they're not forcing a square peg into a round hole,” I said, walking down the steps two stairs at a time to the workshop below. 

I had read every line of research from all of our successful escapades against Umbrella, Tri-Cell, and the other successor organizations. I understood intimately how Umbrella was fumbling their way into taming the metaphorical dragon, and a dragon was the best metaphor for what the Progenitor Virus seemed to be. 

Five years later, and I still didn't know that much about it -- only that it existed, that Umbrella was looking for it, and that every monster that crawled out of their petri dishes could trace their origins to it. The T-Virus was derived from samples of it taken in nature, just as the V-Virus, or Veronica Virus, had been found in an ant queen. Umbrella found those samples, and in the decades since, they had been attempting to cultivate them in specific ways. 

The process was expensive and time consuming. It was like turning a bicycle into a rocket ship -- it could be done, but if you had a better option, why bother? 

That's what the Progenitor Virus was. Essentially, it was the rocket ship that Umbrella was trying to create, and it was much easier to turn a rocket into a bike than it was the other way around. With it, their science experiments had limitless potential. They had nearly ended the world several times now with byproducts that were shackled -- there was no telling what they could accomplish without any restraints.

“If we aren't any closer, then they won't be either,” Chris reasoned as I ventured close to the conspiracy board. My gaze lingered on one face in particular. 

Oswell E. Spencer. The former CEO of Umbrella, and my current arch nemesis. 

He up and vanished in the aftermath of Raccoon City, he and a number of top researchers and scientists. After a liberal amount of hacking, I had a pretty complete list of who had been Paperclipped by various governments and who went independent. Oswell represented a particular challenge to me as I knew he had his own successor organization, but the man was careful. Careful enough that for the past five years we had been dancing together in the shadows, we had brushed against each other only twice. 

“Not if they have a better idea on where to look,” I replied, my lips thinning. “The Bio-weapons market isn't what it was. They know if they want to survive, then cutting down costs is necessary. They need the virus to save money on development and research. To say nothing else of what they want to do with it.” 

“Well,” Chris began, looking over at the far wall, “Its not like we won't have an answer for that, huh?” 

It was then that a third voice interjected, just as the sound of the elevator doors opening echoed out. “I wanted to ask about that,” Jill said, striding into the secret base, holding up a folder with a vaguely irritated expression. “What in the hell are those things supposed to be?”

I followed the gesture that she made to my latest project. It was one that had been long in the making, going through several trial phases to work out all the kinks. The end results spoke for themselves -- standing side by side was my pride and joy. 

Dakka and Kaboom. 

There was no trace of their previous forms now, as there was no need to limit myself in terms of resources for their reconstruction. After Dakka's valiant sacrifice, I knew that she needed to be revived in a form that was worthy. 

That form was that of a fifteen foot tall bipedal robot. 

“I don't understand the question,” I replied. To that, Jill arched an eyebrow at me. “It's a giant robot, Jill. Three inch thick adamantine armor plating. Right shoulder equipped with a hundred and fifty micro missiles, each delivering a payload equivalent to a hellfire missile. On the left, is a 150mm railgun cannon. I have a number of mounted turrets, but the arms can be equipped with a wide variety of weapons I've been developing.” 

Jill held up a hand, “Right- no, that was my bad. What I should have asked is why did you build a giant robot?” 

“... I don't understand the question?” I repeated, my brow furrowing and I shared a glance with Chris, who seemed every bit as puzzled as me as he lowered the wrench in his hand. Jill caught the look and she seemed baffled by our confusion. 

“Rude. You have a handgun that can shoot through tanks. What on Earth do you need giant robots for?” She asked and I blinked, honestly caught off guard by the question. I wasn't even sure how to respond.

So, I just gestured to them both, feeling like the answer should be obvious. Evidently not, as Jill looked at the reformed Dakka and Kaboom, then back at me with an expression that made it clear that she didn't get it. Helplessly, I looked to Chris and made a gesture to him, asking for help. 

“Big robot,” Chris said with a solemn nod. 

Brilliant. I couldn’t have said it better myself. So, I didn't, “Big robot.” 

Jill’s eyes could have fallen out of her head with how hard she rolled them, but she was fighting a smile. “Right. Of course. Big robot,” she conceded, accepting that it was a perfectly valid reason for spending the better part of six months building them with each one costing about fifty million dollars to build. Or maybe she decided that it was stupid and a lost cause. “Well, while you two have been playing with your toys, the rest of us have been working.”

“Hey! Mandatory RnR,” Chris protested while Jill handed me the folder. “Boss's orders.”

I flipped the folder open and skimmed over the contents. In the past five years, we had been expanding our numbers -- some were a bit like Leon and Claire, people who were impacted by Umbrella making a mess and decided that they wanted to pick up a broom. Others were more directly involved, and some were scouted. What had been an organization numbering less than ten now had around two hundred and fifty agents. 

Still small, but it was enough. Several Buses were in the air across the world, able and ready to respond to any outbreak or use of bio-weapons with information sourced from my satellites. Every time, we could only react once they set a fire, but we had gotten pretty good at responding before the fire could burn out of control. Something that was biting us in the ass, just a little bit, because they were wisening up. 

We were an unknown entity, but also a known quantity. It was pretty easy to establish a pattern of behavior when we came down like a ton of bricks whenever a bio-weapon was used. 

The incident in the file was one such incident taking place in Spain. An isolated community found something that had been buried for a very long time, and for very good reason, and as one would expect, it went about as wrong as it possibly could have. Mind-controlling leeches. Umbrella wanted their grubby little hands on it the moment they heard that something had been discovered, and it became a race to acquire it. 

“Leon and Ada do good work,” I mused, flipping through the file. “They hook up yet? I’m six months out from losing my twenty,” I said, feeling a certain kind of thrill when I saw the tell-tale indication that the target had been wiped from reality. Some bug trapped in amber. Gross. 

But with it, came another milestone. 

Milestone level achieved! Congratulations! 

Level 25

Ability Score Improvement:

You can increase one ability score of yours by 2, or two ability scores by 1. 

Inspired Spellcasting:

Growing beyond your items is your magic itself. At 25th level, you may choose a spell list from another class to be able to learn or prepare your spells and cantrips from, which will count as Artificer Spells. In addition, you may prepare twice as many spells as before. 

Epic Levels were something else, because damn. They didn’t come often, with me earning around one a year, but each one was a frankly absurd jump in power. My powers as an Artificer were already a bit blurry on the restrictions that came with the class -- but with Epic Levels? That blurry line vanished entirely and it really did feel like I could accomplish anything that I put my mind to. 

And I could put my mind to a lot. Especially when I chose where to put my ability score points. 

Rudeus Rain 

Variant Human

Artificer 25

Strength: 25 (+7)

Dexterity: 15 (+2)

Constitution: 19 (+4)

Intelligence: 24 (+7)

Wisdom: 12 (+1)

Charisma: 8 (-1)

It wasn’t a bad spread. The Strength boost came from a belt of Fire Giant Strength, while my Intelligence had hit its new cap of 24. The Amulet of Health brought me just shy of 20 Constitution. Which just left Wisdom and Charisma lagging behind, but I had made it okay this far without them. 

Each Epic Level gave me something that was uniquely broken gameplay-wise, but I don’t think anything had managed to top Continuous Innovation, which allowed me to halve the time and cost for Rare and Very Rare magic items. Rare items went from two months to create to just one, while Very Rare went from six months to three. And after five years?  

The sky wasn’t the limit -- it was the starting line. 

“No shot of that -- you're out a twenty," Chris snorted. And, yeah, that was fair. I still had some trepidation about Ada. She never exactly came clean, but she had revealed that she hadn't been who she said she was. Since then, she hadn't done anything to make me distrust her more than I already did, but she also was just shady enough that I hesitated to give her the benefit of the doubt. What did seem to work was pairing her with Leon. She called him a puppy, but he was more of a morality anchor for her that she wasn't willing to cut loose. 

So far, at least. 

“Well, they did good work. They're forwarding what they found in the Spanish castle, but initial findings suggest it's another branch of the Progenitor Virus. When do you want to fly over and find out?” Jill asked me, knowing that I was pretty hands on when it came to the Virus. 

I flipped through a few more pages, finding myself pacing. “Soon,” I decided as I pursed my lips. “Any sign of my arch nemesis?” I asked, taking a seat upon Dakka's foot. 

“None. If they heard about it, then we beat them to it,” Jill replied. 

“Downside of being too good at the job,” Chris ventured. Then he caught my expression, “That not a good thing?” 

“Not when they're adapting to us,” I replied, closing the folder. “Neo-Umbrella, the real one… they're too quiet. Too subtle. I'm willing to bet half of our take downs the past year have been proxies for them, and in the past two years? Barely a trace. We need something to bait them. Something to force their hand into making a move, so we can drag them into the light.” 

Jill wore an interested expression, “What do you have in mind?” She asked, and to that, I held up the file she just gave me. 

Her eyes narrowed a fraction at it, then at me, and then at Dakka who loomed over us both. “You just want to take your giant robot for a spin,” she accused, sussing out exactly what my plan was. 

“I can neither confirm nor deny that,” I admitted with ease.