Enter the S.T.A.R.S

now i know i said last chapter that it would be called "who knew a hole in the wall could be so useful?" however it has been changed due to a change from my original design for the first part of this chapter. also i would like to apolize to anyone who got confused with what i thought HCF stood for, my sources where er... not 100 accurate so from now on i will just be calling the comany by the logo on Weskers ID in code veronica.

Disclaimer: The Resident evil seriesis a product of capcom and so is all it's characters apart from the ones i make up.

X

The crunching of snow groaned under the feet of one of the area patrol officers as he trudged silently through the snow of the deep dark of the forest. "This has got to be one of the creepiest forests I've ever been to." He silently mused while listening to the wind and all the other sounds of the forests, he basically swore that he could hear voices among the trees and the fact that there had been a lot of reports lately of vaguely human shadows dashing from one tree to the other. Considering all the staff that had been disappearing recently and the failure of the transport HQ had doubled the amount of guards recently for the forest area around the base due to security reasons, especially since there was a gaping hole in the concrete wall on the Eastern side.

Sighing, he stopped briefly to look among the trees. He vaguely could still see them dancing among the trees harmlessly, well that was until one them passed under a patch where the moon was streaming through and revealed someone who was as pale as snow with long brown hair and made him stop in alarm. Okay, either he was hallucinating and seriously needed a vacation or there where intruders around here. A lot of intruders. Nah, he chuckled while lowering his gun, first thing how come they had got past bases security system and how come so got past if all the shadows where people? Not unless what he saw was a… vampire. Now that reduced him into hysterics.

He looked up and almost leapt back in alarm when he saw the same girl peering at him through the trees, obviously oblivious that she was standing under another patch of moonlight. Quickly he cocked his gun in her direction and yelled a stunning "freeze!" at the startled girl who immediately looked up.

"aw crud…" he barely managed to catch her say as she realised she was standing in one of the very rare spots of light in the forest then smirked at something, by the looks of it behind. "to bad, so close yet so far." Eh?

The last thing he remembered was the butt of a gun and a sudden pain in his head before everything went black.

X

"… And here is the chemical plant along with the incubation lab." Brikin announced as he stepped through another set of double doors and into the underground storage lab that could have rivalled with the Arklayan underground storage facilitates. The centre of the room was completely filled with countless storage capsules just like the Arklayan lab, except this time all of them didn't contain useless bubbles of flesh of flesh which used to be organisms. (No, this time only half of them did.) The other half were either empty chambers where they stored all their battle hunters had been produced, sickly green lickers and the newest of the additions to the tyrant series.

Like all of there predecessors they where humanoid in size and bulk but looked slightly more human in appearance. They all either a bluish colour or a grey one and had the standard huge claw and one normal hand, also the tattered remains of work clothes hung loosely to there gigantic frames and had the HCF logo on the left breast pocket, or what was left of them. Two of them had there heart exposed for all to see so they had decided to take a leaf out of Greg's book and put a cast iron case around them, a fatal flaw in the design which the S.T.A.R.S hadn't taken advantage of. All four of them where floating peacefully in the light green ooze that while all of them where baring an expression of pain while they continued their peaceful slumber.

"Amazing…" Flora,aka Alexiamumbled while gazing at the three slumbering beasts. "This isn't the work of the T-virus isn't it?"

"No, we used T-veronica on them." He stated while half gazing, half-glaring at the T-veronica tyrants. These where a last testament to Alexia virus and he hated them for that. He didn't hate the virus he just hated what it stood for and who created it.

"I see…" she mumbled while casting an odd look at them, at least it was odd to Brikin. He would have continued the tour to the chemical lab if the floor hadn't began if a very massive explosion hadn't sounded off from the eastern side of the base and the ground had begun to shake violently, making everybody begin to wobble about or grab something to prevent falling. "Wha?… Get off me you imbecile!" she exclaimed as one of her collages, the blonde fell on her, making them both fall to the floor.

The shaking only lasted a few seconds and as soon as it was Brikin was back on his feet. "What happened?" he asked no-one in particular as the room began to fill with the sounds of painful moans of scientists came into the air and a grunt as the rookie threw the blonde off her and stood up then froze as a new sound hollowed throughout the base.

Gunfire. Screaming soon followed.

"Umbrella…" Brikin mumbled bitterly while the alarms started to sound off. It all made sense now, the computer virus which had grounded all the transport of materials, the many disappearances of employee's… they must be here for what happened in Rock fort.

"Security level 1 breach! All employee's prepare battle stations!" oh so now they go off…

"We're being attacked!" the female yelped in the surprise which every else felt, must be pretty bad to have arrived in what was supposed to be an impenetrable base and right on the first day it gets attacked!

"Where's the monitoring room Brikin?" Matt aka hunk, demanded to brikin as the door slid open and in stepped or squelched a thoroughly soaked wesker.

"Don't ask." He said before anyone else could say anything. "And it's through their if you must know." He indicated to the metal door behind him that had looked like it had been opened by someone in a hurry. Through the door they could see dozen's of monitors of various sizes letting out a blue glow and all displaying the same image from different angles as they all hurriedly stepped into the room.

It was a sea of black and blue with a storm of bullet's shooting off all around the place running around just inside the base perimeter. On their shoulder's was a symbol, but not the umbrella symbol which Brikin (and Alexia, if he had noticed.) frowned deeply at. At the front though they could see two lone figures running ahead of the crowd which was dispersing slightly to enter the different facilitates. He could roughly guess there was about a thousands troops, great just great. Not only had they attacked them by surprise but also had come well prepared, looks like someone has been planning this for a while…

"Level 2 security breach!" the cold female voice of the alarm system went as the intruder tore down the military compound doors while shooting any resistance inside, which was a lot considering all the staff armed their and a few tanks.

"Were not in any immediate danger are we?" the black haired one asked while eyeing the advancing trooper's nervously through the monitor.

"Oh don't worry about it. Even if they somehow get through the military compound they have to deal with the hunter patrols which guard the corridors of the base and to even get there they'll need to break down the titanium door leading to the centre of the base." Brikin and wesker explained while trying to get a good view of the two people leading the attack. so far the camera positions had given them no clue to who they where and they simply couldn't make out a face. All they could see really was there uniforms which were a white assnow, perfect comflorage material out hereand the unknown symbol on their shoulders.

"They tore down that door pretty quickly though and that looked pretty tough." jack, aka Alfred pointed out to the silent heads of the base. However they where spared the time to answer when a flaming tank suddenly appeared out of nowhere and forcedthe two in frontto separate from the group partly and into the viewing space of a camera which viewing position was perfect, the result was that brikin eyes widened and mouth fell open and formed a small round o while Wesker brow creased. Dear god, it was another Marcus all over again…

The female they both had no clue who it was however she looked very vaguely familiar while the male, well now it explained how they had managed to get penetrate the base so far and pass through the areas surronding the base. He had trained up with Wesker and Brikin while he had been under Marcus's guidance and possessed and knew basically everything he knew. However his path had been down the road similar to Brikins in more than one way…

"… How did they get in?" the black haired rookie asked in puzzlement as 'Flora' pointed to a gaping hole in the eastern side of the wall that still had a trickle of men rushing through it.

"I think they came through that hole… wait a minute, why is there a hole wall in the first place?" she asked in confusion while Wesker broke out of his train of thought and let out a huge groan.

"I hate that Burnside…" Wesker mumbled quietly which only he and Alexia… now why did he just call her that? Anyway was only heard by him and made her shoot a bewildered look at him in response.

Meanwhile the intruders where spreading through the inside the compound like blood from a wound. However now they where meeting a hail of bullets coming from the turrets and HCF staff and where wavering partly. To bad they couldn't see the end result as another series of explosion sounded off from somewhere and the light's blacked out with the monitors, leaving them in darkness.

"What now?" one of the new employees groaned while everyone was trying to feel there way out of the room.

"They must have shut off the main power grid to this area! thankfully the back-up should start working soon!" Wesker exclaimed while and though the darkness he could see brikin frown slightly, thanks to the T-2 virus and it's ability to heighten human senses. He could now see in the darkness so well his sight could be compared to that of a cat.

"Erm wesker won't we have to reset the storage power route since the capsules are running on a different grid now?" he addressed worriedly Wesker while standing in a thinking position.

"Yes, otherwise the specimens will escap…" Wesker was interrupted by a loud cracking sound coming from storage room while wesker tensed up. Not a very good sign at all.

Even though he couldn't see as good as wesker Brikin could vaguely make out the blurry images of the three awake and very angry tyrants beating on the glass of the storage capsules. Both of them shot each other worried glances since they both had watched the original T-veronica tyrant almost kill Claire, a feet which nothing else seemed to have worked apart from a direct confrontation and that had worked against them or the whole invasion force.

Finally the capsules around them shattered and out stepped the three enchanced tyrants while all the sleeping lickers began to awake in there capsules. Now both of them were no mere cowards like Brad Vickers however they where not fools by no means and judging by the looks of it they had really put there feet into the lion's mouth this time. By the time they eliminated the tyrants the lickers would be awake and out, not that they were much of a threat mind you it's just that lickers like to make a lot of noise when hurt and that might just attract the invading forces to them. Something they did not want yet. They planned on taking them on in smaller and easier to handle groups. So they carefully weighed the disadvantages and advantages of fighting off these hulks and decided the best option was…

To run. So they fled.

All three of the tyrants ran after them, either because there virus attracted them or they remembered Wesker knocking them unconscious while he had injected them with the T-veronica virus. Brikin took the latter. While they ran up towards the first floor the rookies by the sounds of it fled somewhere towards the technology block while the sound of glass shattering again pierced the silence along with the angry bellows of the tyrants and the hungry hisses of the now free Lickers. Just before they were out of hearing range however both of them could have sworn they heard a voice similar to that of Alexia say "excellent…" along with "Ew! One of them just licked me!"

X

Sometime later,a couple of miles away from the base a black jeep was driving it's way through the snowy forest and blended in nicely. It's atmosphere was quite quiet apart from the two people in the drivers seat discussing god knows what.

Chris merely ignored the word exchanged coming from Leon and Ark in the front while gazing out the window and into the frozen tundra of the forest. It reminded him so much of the Arklayan forest at night it almost made him half expect another progenitor carrier to bash him on the head. God that had hurt. Anyway, Claire was sitting next to him while Kevin and Rebecca had to share the rest of the back with all the weapons and documents that they found important from all the outbreaks.

"So what's the weirdest thing you've encountered so far Ark?" He managed to catch Leon say to Ark while gazing out the window.

"The sheena island tyrant. Not only did that thing swell up like a balloon but it was created out of a certain element from young boys brains." He told him then added with a shudder. "Without Anaesthetic."

"Brikin takes my number one ugly dude prize." Leon told him and turned Claire who was also starring out the window like Chris had, intent on strike up some kind of conversation. "Hey Claire?"

"Huh?" she mumbled slightly startled at being woken out of her daydreaming.

"What's the weirdest thing you've encountered so far in both the outbreaks you've been in?" he asked her while everyone else turned in her direction.

"… Alexander Ashford." She simply said then turned away. Confused, Leon turned in Kevin direction.

"What about your Kevie?"

"Hmm… I can't decide between the G specimen, the infected elephant or the Licker in the vent of the apple hotel. And don't call me that." He told a seriously dumbfounded Ark and Leon who decided to round on Rebecca instead of asking him.

"You becca?" she only looked at him to shown that she had heard him.

"The leech que… er I mean the Tyrant." She mumbled quickly in response while Chris looked at her suspiciously. She's hiding something…

"What about you Chris oh great leader?" Leon asked Chris, a smile evident on his face.

"Well I've been thinking a lot lately and before I would have said that thing Alexia mutated into but now I would have to say Lisa Trevor or Forest." He stated firmly while Claire looked startled by his new decision.

"What? why?" she demanded from her older brother as he let out a sigh.

"Do I have to?" Claire nodded her head in a stern way. "…When I first encountered Lisa she had knocked me out in her old house and went around wearing her mothers face. She was either obsessed with candles or couldn't find anything else to help see in the dark. Plus I get the feeling she was a lot smarter than anything else in the mansion since I found two barrels which looked suspiciously like the ones from the guard house kitchen. And I get the strangest feeling that she studied some of the black arts from the circle of candles in the basement with the doll in the middle while Forest was one of the only zombies which could run and his strengh was almost unbelievable for a zombie! he had all the abilities a crizmon head would have but looked like even more human than all the zombies i saw, minus the all the wounds he had. I still can't figure out what attacked him out on the balcony since the only things i could think of which could give him that kind of wound wouldn't sit him down on that porch seat like that. now if i had enough on a plate already without him following me everywhere in the mansion like a deranged maniac which i couldn't shoot without being blown up to kingdom come."

"A monster whichbelieves in the blacks artsand a zombie which could run and you couldn't shoot at?" Kevin mumbled while looking at him in a perplexed way while Chris nodded in response. "Man, you must have had your work put out for you to survive that giant madhouse."

"You better believe it. And I get the feeling that it wasn'tLisa original intention to kill me." okay now everyone was looking at him oddly.

"… What's making you think that?" Rebecca asked after a few seconds.

"Well the first thing she did to me was knock me out and give me this whopper of a bruise..." He rubbed the now nearly diminished bruise on the left side of his head to show where she had hit him. "Next thing I knew I was lying in front of a fire and she came stumbling in. Now after having trudged that mad house with Forest nearly always on my back I had enough monsters to last a lifetime and blasted her with the magnum. You know I really regret not letting her kill Wesker down in the path to the underground labs…" he mumbled in response as silence resumed again for a few seconds.

"… Hey what's that?" Claire frowned while indicating towards a number of huge grey buildings shadows among the trees from her side as everyone looked towards it. They could only see it n this darkened forest due to the fact that there where multiple fires illuminating the buildings coming from around them. "Werelate for the party againaren't we?"

"By the looks of it." Chris nodded in agreement while Leon new jeep turned towards the towering buildings. "This is probably the place responsible for the strange monsters appearances and strange disappearances from this region and by the looks of it's been attacked by someone or something serious has gone wrong. Ever way keep your guns up and guns ready." He instructed as Rebecca and Kevin began to look through their massive inventory for weaponry.

Ark noticed his partner in the front squinting at something in the distance as they reached the edge of the clearing surrounding the base. "What the matter Leon?"

"There's something big in the air …" his eyes widened in shock. "And it's aimed directly at us!"

"What!" Everyone else shouted in surprise while looking in the sky above the base.The long slender flaming mass of a missile could been seen rapidly approaching the jeep What happened next Chris or anyone else barely had time to realise what had completely happened. Ark had followed Leon's gaze and had tried an evasive manoeuvre and had made a sudden movement left. The end result was that the missile hit the ground right next to them and instead of blowing them up made the jeep fly in the air for 30 feet them land upside down in the deep snow. Ruining it completely.

The condition of the passenger was still up for debate. Since all of them, save Kevin had been wearing their seat belts they were all now hanging by the ceiling and groaning while Kevin had landed on a pile on the floor or ceiling of the jeep.

"boy am I glad I listened to Claire and put this thing on." Chris mentally said as he undid his buckle with one hand and used the other to land on the floor without getting seriously scratched up while the other's copied this motion.

"Aw man, this is my second jeep this year!" he heard Leon moan from the front as he forced the door on his right open. "My insurance is going to be sky high…"

"er I hate to interrupt you buddy but this is not the time nor the place for that!" Ark exclaimed while trying to drag the unwilling Leon from the jeep as Chris several more Rockets take to the air. in response he grabbed the closest miniature boxes they had put all the items they collected and took of in a dead sprint.

"Grab what you can and run!" he shouted back to the others as they began to rush out with some items of there own and rush after him as the missiles began to close in on the jeep with Leon and Ark close by. He couldn't watch…

BOOM!

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" all four of them turned to watch Ark and Leon fly gracefully like a bird and come crashing to the ground like a the zombie Claire had pushed off a cliff along with a dozen of the items from the jeep. At the same moment as well Chris felt something collide with his head and make him stumble backwards. Not wanting to waste time, Chris only took a small glance at the object which had struck him, a medium sized black book and hightailed it towards the front doors of the base. A serious gamble he knew but it was the only way to avoid being blown up out here...

"Leave those two and run!" he shouted to the others as he fled towards the base, momentarily wondering what Claire had picked up from the ground as he saw a large sliding door approaching fast. He didn't like the idea of leaving his comrades for dead however he didn't have the time for it and they where either dead from blast or just knocked out. Knowing those two it was probably the second option…

X

okay first a serious note to anyone out reading this, the next chapter will probaly take longer than this one since i'm going on vacation for a about a week soon. just warning you! then again a review or two might get me to get my butt in gear...