Resident Evil:

Operation Rebecca

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them. To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream

William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act III; scene I, lines 68-77

Chapter I: Biohazard

"So you've confirmed her whereabouts?" asked the man sitting behind the desk, closing the blinds. He turned off his lamp, as the room had enough light.

"Yes, our intelligence shows she is being held at Eagle Point, South Dakota. We're not sure if Umbrella or some unknown organization is holding her captive." The balding man standing in front of the desk wearing a gray three-piece suit pushes up his glasses and hands the report to his superior. "But we are convinced they have unleashed the T-Virus on the town. By the time we were surecertain members of the populace had already begun to show signs of infection. This was days ago. Now, the situation must be critical."

"Why would they capture a member of the old Raccoon City S.T.A.R.S. team and infect a town?" grumbled the man in the chair, leaning forward. "The Mansion incident was 3 years ago, could it be a possible vendetta?" He ran his hand through his slicked back brown hair and then heaved a heavy sigh from his stout chest, fixing his blue overcoat's buttons. "Well in any case, she's been providing us with information critical to combating Umbrella and the spread of the virus. We need to retrieve her immediately."

The man in gray coughed lightly at this. "Sir, it might be wiser to cut our losses. We don't even know if she's alive. It would be a waste of both manpower and firepower to go in and rescue"

"Even so!" interrupted the man as he leaned back in his chair, "There would still be the matter of those infected with the T-Virus and disposing of them. We'd need to check for survivors and find a way to destroy the town. We must eliminate any trace of the virus whenever and wherever possible."

"There is still the matter of manpower. We have very little to spare, as our forces are spread out across the globe. We could devote no more than four to six operatives." His glasses slipped down his nose slightly as he leaned forward. "It's impossible to execute this successfully with the numbers we are up against."

The man behind the desk sat up straight in his seat. "Mr. Jeremiah, you do not know my agents, and do not question the possibility of anything relating to our organization. We've been fighting these things since the virus was first unleashed. Just let me handle the operation, you go back to looking at maps and graphs. You are dismissed."

"Yes sir." said Mr. Jeremiah, as he sharply turned and walked out the door. He had no use for arguing with his hard-headed boss again.

The man pressed his intercom button. "Maggie, request for Colonel Axl. He is needed in my office."

The woman's voice beeped over the intercom in his office, "Yes Mr. Burton."

He heaved another sigh. "Don't worry Becky, we'll get you backI hope to God we can get you back."

-

Groggily he opened his eyes, a teenager of the age of eighteen, and lifted his head from its face-down position on his pillow as he heard his name repeated on the intercom.

"Colonel Axl, report to Mr. Burton's office immediately. Colonel Axl"

He groaned and went to rub his eyes, sliding his arms over the sheets, only to realize his right arm was horribly asleep.

"Oh, come on!" he picked it up gave it a good smack against the table, "don't do this to me!" He sat up, after he heard his name on the intercom again. "Oh shut up! God how I hate Mondays."

Axl took a look around the room, seeing everything in order as he had placed it the night before. Scratching his mess of brown hair, he noted the clock read 8:00 sharp, but hadn't planned on waking up till nine for his daily training. He pressed the intercom button next to his bed.

"This is Colonel Axl reporting. I shall be there in five minutes." He took another look around, his gaze falling on the rifle he left in the corner. It was an old M-14 he'd kept in good condition ever since

"Do not dwell on past lives, not now," he whispered. He put on his boots and threw on an over shirt over his existing t-shirt. The shirt was his favorite explorer-esque Levi's button down, but the small tears on the hem showed its age. Despite this, he could not once remember ever buttoning it up, and he wasn't about to break tradition. Added with his jeans and light brown hat, he looked like a modern cowboy. He had caught some heat for his fighting attire' before, but it didn't matter what anyone told him. He did things his way and it worked, and that was reason enough for him to keep doing it. Heck, he did things so well he made Colonel in a small paramilitary organization.

The speaker beeped, with Barry's voice bellowing, "Damn it kid, get your rear in gear and move it!"

"Yeah yeah, I'm comin' old man." he mumbled to himself, and then pressed the button, "I'm on my way, sir!" in his best at attention' voice.

-

Axl opened the large oak door with the glass pane insert bearing the name Bartholomew Burton' on it. He stepped inside, seeing Barry's chair turned around, facing out the window through the blinds. Axl moved silently toward the seat in front of the desk and sat down. On the desk, in a mahogany case with a glass top, rested a police-issue .44 magnum revolver.

"Sir, you called me?"

Barry spun the chair around to face Axl and tossed a photo of a girl on the table for his agent to look at. "Do you know who this is?"

Axl picked up and glanced at the photo. "Rebecca Chambers, former medic of the S.T.A.R.S. Bravo team. She was one of the survivors of the Spencer Mansion and has not been seen since." He casually tossed it back on the desk in front of Barry. "5' 3," light brown hair, brown eyes, blood-type AB, weapon of choice Beretta 9mm. She was a rookie at the time of the incident' on July 23, 1998 with no prior combat experience. Her credentials merited her inclusion in S.T.A.R.S. at eighteen, as she was highly educated in the medical field. I've read the files."

Barry took the photo and placed it back in a manila folder. "Heh, I'm impressed. You take your job seriously, cowboyShe's a good kid, she reminded me of my daughters and Chris of his sister during the trials that night. We all experienced things in that place no one should be forced to experience, but" he took a moment to reflect "She always let me know I had something to live for, a family back home to fight for."

Axl cringed a bit, his eyes unintentionally squinting. "I don't wish to be rude, but what is the purpose of my being here?"

Barry looked up at him, but was still caught in memory, an almost sad look on his face. After a moment he shook his head, bringing him back. "I'm sorry, I must be rambling in my old age. I have a mission for you." Barry handed the folder over. "Our intelligence shows that we have a positive T-Virus reading in a town called Eagle Point. The town has been heavily affected and we're not sure of any survivors."

Axl shifted in his seat while staring at the report, tightening his hands into fists as he tried to contain the welling rage. "Why don't you just deploy our Dresden bomb and burn the town? There's no need to get me involved if the town is dead."

Barry continued, "There is one reason we do not consider that option. That girl, Rebecca Chambers, has been located in the vicinity of Eagle Point. Though it may have seemed she had disappeared after the incident, she really has been working underground, gathering data and information on the movements of Umbrella. Without her, our organization of hunters would never have found half the test sites Umbrella has for testing its virus, not to mention the other dark associations with samples of the virus. She is essential to our cause, Colonel. We can't lose her."

Axl looked into Barry's almost pleading eyes, seeing through the gruff visage an acute worry for this girl's safety. "Do we even know if she is deceased or not?"

Barry shook his head, "No, we can't tell anything. But if there's even the slim chancewe have to take it. You're my best, Axl, and I know you can handle this; will you take the assignment?"

Axl looked back at the picture and then at the map of Eagle Point. He took a hard look at those photos. Someone in there was reliving a nightmare he knew all too well. "The mission is to go in, find Miss Chambers, confirm her status and evacuate her if possible."

"And to rescue any other survivors down there."

Axl stood up. "What about destroying the virus?"

"There is no need to worry, let me handle that."

His decision was resolute, and he spoke to the point. "Sir, I accept. I can deploy in one hour."