The Meeting
Highlighted against the horizon, several black trucks streaked through the hills of a remote village in Asia. Traveling deep within the boundaries of Russia, the group had followed several mountain trails to find this dainty and secluded little town, whose minuscule population was substantially smaller than Raccoon City's. Picked up against the early morning light, an Umbrella insignia glittered with the light peaking over the dark roads. They had traveled at a great distance and cost to get to this point but it was well worth getting to this scenery. It was here that Umbrella had begun to do research on the Mother Virus back in the early 50s. The only reason why Raccoon City was chosen to house the Hive over here was because it (Raccoon City) had plenty of citizens to use to work for them and they could easily control them there with the government. Something that the higher ups had not realized would be so difficult some months after the Incident...
Whereas the Hive was totally unguarded from acts of terrorism, this site was protected from everything. From the screenings of its employees and monitoring of phone calls and chitchats, Umbrella left nothing to ponder when it came to these employees and to keep them happy they met their every request. This was just a small price to pay for the continuing of their experimentation and such for they would produce results thousands greater here than anywhere else. Of all the perks, its location was the best part of it all. Hidden deep atop a treacherous cliff side, the Umbrella labs were hidden from all prying eyes and fences were erected around the base for miles. Signs were posted across the fences in every dialect and language thinkable to keep out any intruders. From time to time curiosity would get the better and those who strayed inside of these fences were soon to find themselves experimented upon. When these people vanished, no one ever questioned what happened to them and no one ever reported them missing. The Umbrella Corporation had done well to produce fear within these people and as it was far from what any normal person would call civilization, they could keep them quiet very easily. This simple mindedness would also serve well for Umbrella because it would be used to manipulate them to do things that any normal person would think twice about, further casting shadows on this town's future.
As the village worked on its own business, the black trucks rushed across their silenced streets to a point high in the mountains. The silent roar of helicopters echoed outside of the trucks as they came to a halt. Men clad in UBCS gear and high ranking officials from Umbrella jumped free from the trucks and ran deep inside the hidden mountain base. The doors clanking shut behind them as they pushed forward, they found themselves far beneath the surface in a bunker miles beneath the dull village above. The facility that they found themselves in was much more complex than the Hive from Raccoon City and included a much more vast array of laboratories. Housing quarters for almost a hundred thousand workers and a security system that would rival that of a nuclear silo, the site, coded the Omega facility, allowed for all sorts of experiments that could not be produced anywhere else in the world. In fact, Umbrella did extensive studies of cybernetic enhancements to some of their most infamous biological weapons here. Working to finally attain a level where the mind would be fully retained in a subject, the scientists here studied day and night to finally please their higher ups. In addition to this, the Omega facility would be best known for its hand in the Nemesis Project. They had done great work to produce the Nemesis subjects that were seen in Raccoon City and likewise in other areas of the world, but all those files were deemed top secret and filed away within Umbrella's high security vaults.
The normal day would involve thousands of experiments almost occurring within milliseconds of each other. This precision working was vital for the results of every experiment and anyone off one second would have skewed results. It was easy to tell when it was around the time of running an experiment because the generators' hum would deepen. For the new crew, this would catch them off guard and lead them to think that the lights would go out but the seasoned professional would beg to differ. These senior members of the crew would have had it timed to the T and would expect it on the pre-disclosed time every day. Just another trick for the scientists to learn on the production lines that would further aid experimentation and increase the number of successful experiments.
Inside these labs, Umbrella stocked some of the most advanced technology the world had ever known and some of the most advanced biohazard containment units, specifically designed for this site. Because of the potential of biohazardous contamination, each of the labs were installed with an explosive charge planted underneath a hermetically sealable double doorway at which an incineration unit would burn everything in the room at the temperature of 3000 degrees Fahrenheit (1921.89 Kelvin), sustainable for up to forty-five minutes. This system would have given Umbrella the cutting edge over all hazards in Raccoon City but the data from that incident was far more priceless than those people were. The Incident was allowed to continue and no precautions were taken for that aim. Unlike there, the Umbrella Corporation did not want a release of the viral weapons and the alike into the environment so it was deemed necessary to install this system. Not one accident had happened here but with every hazard there needed to be a precaution so monitoring of all labs was scheduled regularly and maintenance was made daily to the systems.
By this time of the day, the roaring of crowds coming to work would deafen out the generators' powering up. Yet this date was unlike any other so the Psyonic capacitors and neurostimulators lay packed neatly in the clean rooms as work outside stopped on this weekend day. Everything lay untouched within their hermetically sealed double doors and security defenses were armed to the fullest lethality. Today, the people were given a day off from their experiments and worries as the executives from the highest levels of Umbrella met to talk about their recent problems and how they would solve them. There were a growing number of people who were gathering force against this company and they had to resolve this at any cost.
In one of the most remote places of the Omega site, the echoes of UBCS soldiers rattled through the halls as the chit chat of dress shoes tip toed down the halls to an empty room at the end of a long corridor. At which opening the door, a UBCS soldier entered the room and took in every detail of the room so as to get a layout of the diplomats and their seating order. Looking around the cozy space, he spied a large mirror in the background where their conversation would normally be taped but this was not the case today. Not too far from the one-way mirror, there rested a large mahogany table that looked worn for its age but would still carry a substantial weight. Lined up in this dimly lit room, a series of chairs resided close to the table with silver pitchers of water and glasses fixed in front of each chair. Making way for the incoming guests, the UBCS operative joined his fellow members outside of the room standing watch as the room filled with people. The meeting was soon to commence.
Walking quickly to their chairs, the representatives from Umbrella's hierarchy sat down, at which, the President of Umbrella took the lead seat in front of the hundred or so people. The sounds of hushed voices stopped the moment the door to the room slammed shut. All eyes went around the table to the various faces that now inhabited the table. The men and women sitting here ranged in age from sixteen to seventy-four years old and had various collegiate backgrounds ranging from Oxford to Bradley University. It was indeed a mixed welcome of people but because of their own problems, not one of the people had ever met like this...
Drawing a raspy breath, the President of Umbrella cleared his voice signaling the beginning of the meeting. Everyone, at once, hushed as all attention turned to the twenty-six year old head of it all. The man, still very much in his prime, would have easily touched six foot had he of been standing. His stout face looking so innocent and young but inside beat a black heart of which led him to the decisions he had made concerning every development in the history of his years there. Coughing slightly to clear his throat, he took a long winded breath and began his speech to the people seated before him.
"Welcome," the man roared with his deep unapologetic voice, "I expect there weren't any delays or problems on your trip here. I know there have been a lot of rumors surfacing about our competitors, Nanotek and Halliburton, buying out our contracts from the US government but that is far from true. I called this meeting because we have a problem. Recently the survivors from our experiments across the globe are grouping together.
"Of the groups actively challenging our Corporation, the civilians who were involved in our operations in Raccoon City and other similar Incidences must be taken care of at all costs. They have become an eyesore and if they ever gather in numbers they will prove to be a problem. Yet the biggest threat of all happens to be the best that Raccoon City's finest had to offer... These few S.T.A.R.S. members, that survived Raccoon City, were first needed to be used in our public relations brawl but now have been proven to be our greatest obstacle to overcome. With these highly resourceful operatives, they can rally the other survivors into making a massive strike against one of our other facilities. This cannot and will not go by unchecked. These annoyances are being taken care of as of right now and results will be produced! You have my word that this injustice will not last! These people WILL die!
"As for our scheduled test, ground zero of the acquired testing site has been approved by the United States' government. It's amazing how well a little power goes in this land of golden opportunities. Project Pandemic is going ahead as was stated in your memos."
"Dr. Spencer?" spoke up a petite girlie voice in the corner, "What do we tell the public about the deaths of these S.T.A.R.S. members?"
"The same thing we told them about the Raccoon City tragedy, Miss Whitney," Dr. Spencer quickly shot, "We tell them we had nothing to do with it. We are investigating the accidents to find the people responsible and when the time's right, we just tell them there are no connections between the deaths of them and in honor of the deceased, we are setting up funds in the name of the surviving relatives in the sum of one million dollars each. Plausible deniability is our cover and no one will ever be able to counter it... The American government has used it for years and look at its populace... These people are like sheep to the slaughter... They will believe anything and everything they're told."
"I'm sure that we will be able to cover ourselves," a younger man hesitated, "I'm just worried about Project Pandemic. What happens if the cover story falls through? What happens if we cannot contain the infection?"
"We've thought of that angle already," Dr. Spencer boomed, "Should our cover story fail, we will use our political ties to paint it as a terrorist attack against the Americans. With the level of fear within the US, our tactics will not fail. Fear is our best weapon here. As for if our containment protocols fail, I have done preliminary calculations and they say that we would have collateral damage of around a million people infected and a dozen more million if the winds are favorable. This is just another test like in Raccoon City. There are acceptable losses we are willing to have. Remember this, those people will not know what is going on. There will be bedlam and there will be panic. We must contain it at all costs but should anything happen we will... deny, deny, DENY! Project Pandemic will be our way into the multi-trillion dollar market... and our way... to rule the day that anyone EVER messed with Umbrella!"