Disclaimer: I do not own Resident Evil or any characters from Resident Evil, all rights go to their rightful and respective owner(s).

A/N: This is my first fic! I am hoping to create an original story based on time frames and segments of Resident Evil lore that I find interesting. The prologue will help catch you up to speed on the lore to this point of the story (from my perspective/interpretation), the story going forward will be original, correlating with, and referencing other events. Hopefully it reads like an alternate history unofficial novella, with some fan geekiness too. Please review and let me know what you think, and I plan on updating this and continuing the story! Thank You & Enjoy!

Umbrella: Unstable Synergy

Prologue

January, 2003: The Umbrella Corporation is on it's last legs, backed into a corner, the corporation finds itself fighting a financial war. Following the Raccoon City incident, the masquerade of the corporation's pharmaceutical origins is completely shattered. Key figures and executives behind the company's rise and successes either desert the company or are killed off. The most notable challenger of the once great corporate giant being Albert Wesker, who had not only jumped ship, but had been fighting back, waging a war of attrition; attempting to undermine any future efforts of the company. Whether it be corporate espionage or sabotage, Wesker seemed to have his finger on the pulse of the slowly dying company.

And die slowly it did, the outbreak and shoddy attempt to cover up said outbreak was a massive blow to the corporation; publicly, financially, and legally. Umbrella's attempts to build and fund their own private hit squads to control Raccoon City was an absolute money pit, just throwing away all of the money they had garnered over the course of the past 30 years. Gone in less than three months, the company seemed to have completely crumbled.

There was no reason for the corporation to continue to exist. There is no bouncing back from the PR disaster that is a viral outbreak, infighting between staff and private militias, and essentially, bankruptcy. Yet Umbrella fought on, for the past five years Umbrella has lived and breathed in the courtrooms of the United States justice system. Any and all money they would somehow make, or had remaining, were going straight into legal fees in order continue to fight, to just merely exist.

Why the corporation would continue to exist? They were obviously hiding something else, and trying to keep it hidden via court battles. However, there is another layer to their persistence, the fleeing and killing of most personnel brought something new to the corporation, a shiny shimmering diamond in the rough for the greedy. A power vacuum. This vacuum would be tantalizing to anyone who understood just how big, and just how much potential had existed, and could exist in the shell of this dying company.

The man to assume the position within this vacuum would be Sergei Vladimir, a man notable for his contributions, his position, and his deep understanding of Umbrella itself. He is most notable for his position in leading the previously mentioned private militias of Umbrella. Earning his way into the company following the downfall of the Soviet Union, and his fleeing to the United States. Sergei was able to bring experience and a certain brutish edge that was simply too good to pass up for the company, his expertise would go a long way; what if things were to ever head south for the company? Not even ten years following his employment with the company, he found himself in a unique position, most of the possible corporate opposition were gone, his employment was seemingly terminated, Umbrella was closing up shop… Or was it?

When Sergei overthrew essentially nobody, he took over Umbrella, providing himself job security. With a much slimmer cast of personnel, the corporate restructuring resembled more of a monarchy than any sort of reasonable two-fronted organization. Sergei was thrown into the hot seat, however, because if Umbrella were to live on they would have to fight like hell to stay standing in spite of the Raccoon City incident. The company would once again become a two-front organization, however, not specializing in Pharmaceuticals and Virology. But rather, a corporate attorney powerhouse, and the scummy, but lucrative position as a black market dealer. Their business model seemingly shifted overnight to a head-hunting business, which sought out the best of the best attorneys; completely funded by black market deals.

As the shock of the Raccoon City incident slowly tampered off, Umbrella also drifted away from the minds of citizens across the world. With Umbrella mostly existing as men in sharp suits and intimidating poker faces in courtrooms, most of the world assumed they were done for. However, under the surface, Sergei was turning over a new leaf, Umbrella was starting production again. With the very few funds they had left, the legal illusion was good enough to sustain a stealthy production of bio-organic weapons. Sergei started small, creating artificial creatures that, hopefully, wouldn't cause an outbreak, creatures like Lickers, Hunters, Chimeras, or any other desired mutation of an animal. Starting nationally, Umbrella would operate and trade these creatures inside the continental United States.

Being able to ship the creatures in discrete vans and trucks was critical to the rebuilding of the company. Umbrella would also start head-hunting for black market dealers, casting their net wide they would have middlemen across the nation in search of illegal substances. Eventually they would use these gateways into illegal markets to get into contact with more wide-spread distributors. Umbrella would, of course, also be able to artificially create or synthesize illegal substances, even stimulants that could give gangs an advantage over others; just to sweeten the deal. And of course, with Umbrella being such a big and public name, now delving into the crime-ridden underworld, they had a serious advantage in terms of production. Better yet, they had to do little to cover up their tracks, with the criminal tenet 'honor among thieves,' and snitching being frowned upon in the crime world, Umbrella's operation would become quite the lucrative endeavor.

Slowly, Umbrella built up these connections and routes until they were able to get in touch with more profitable subjects. With plenty of mutated creatures in their back stock, they would be able to highball customers with their completely unique and exclusive market of bio-organic weapons. Now in touch with militias, insurrectionists, secessionists, etc. They now had a market that could utilize their B.O.W.s. The sales started small, sell a Licker here, sell a Hunter there. The legal defense would be simple, 'these creatures just so happened to have escaped from facilities across the nation, or crawled their way out of Raccoon City into another area.' And this, of course, is when Umbrella would start making the big bucks again… Their legal defenses became stronger, they filibusted longer in court, and more importantly, they could afford more means of transportation. Purchasing boats and planes, the company could now expand their operations to a global scale, and hopefully beat the legal system at their own game.

With their new ability to cast their power and influence far and wide, it was time to ramp up production. Sergei and his new financial advisors quickly learned that the most lucrative customers were the most desperate, the ones that lived in the most unstable conditions, and would need some serious advantage to stabilize their own conditions. And hopefully, return and rely on Umbrella as their go-to source of stability and power. Realizing the potential in the business of exploiting unstable regions and customers, Sergei would continue an old project of his in order to more efficiently capitalize and reward his most loyal and rich customers. Sergei revived his T-A.L.O.S. project. A project which would modify Tyrants in order to internalize weaponry, as well as install safeguards and measures to give the end user complete control over their own bio-organic weapon. Sergei aimed to streamline and make the process of creating T-A.L.O.S. Tyrants more efficient, in order to mass produce these revolutionary bio-organic weapons. And ultimately produce infinite wealth and power for Umbrella, but more importantly, Sergei Vladimir.

Eastern Slav Republic

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Caucuses and the Balkans, all former Soviet regions would attempt to assimilate. Creating the Eastern Slav Republic, of course, shifting from a strong socialist foundation to a weaker, more free, democratic foundation, while also attempting to assimilate many groups would instantly lead to disaster. And, of course, it did, almost immediately infighting would begin, which would slowly snowball into civil wars in the coming years.

Sergei's political beliefs, interests, and motivations are essentially unknown, but he did not stick around long after the downfall of the Soviet Union to witness the civil wars. Perhaps he was a true soviet through-and-through, and felt betrayed and disappointed, or perhaps he feared for his job security in the Soviet Army and fled to the U.S. for similar employment elsewhere. The latter seems to be the most likely given his history with Umbrella. Not all were as coincidentally wise as he was however, and also of course due to other conditions and factors, others were not able to escape what would become the most unstable region in the world.

With Sergei's newfound exploitative business model, which relied on instability, where he once may have felt betrayed or nervous himself, he now saw the region as nothing more than checks just waiting to be cashed in. The Eastern Slav Republic would be one of the first international outreaches of the new Umbrella Corporation, with so many factions and systems of belief conflicting, Umbrella would step in and provide resources to all in order to prolong these conflicts. And for the highest bidder, Umbrella would give the most resources, and the best possible edge in terms of combat power with their new B.O.W. program.

In the Serbian region, the leader of the secessionist group; "The Brokyn Halbyrt," Bosko Slobodan was one of Umbrella's customers. While nowhere near the highest bidder, Slobodan and his militia relied heavily on Umbrella's medical resources, rations, and stimulants. And Slobodan had built up quite the rapport with Umbrella's middleman for the region, Josyp Chumak. Josyp regularly told Bosko that he was his favorite stop on his route, while the region was internally unstable, every stop Josyp had made in the area, and every meeting he had made with Bosko went by smoothly, consistently.

The Brokyn Halbyrt is a group fed up with the stagnation and lack of care in their area. Where conflict bruised the Eastern Slav Republic, the opposite was the case for the Serbian region the group was located. So much so to the point of neglect, this neglect leading to the point where the government was hardly holding elections, and when they did, they were sporadic and completely random, without rhyme or reason. The region was also suffering a decline of both imports and exports, industry was failing and unemployment was continuing to increase. The perception of this local militia was one of dictatorship, these people without interest in conflict had decided to instead stagnate, and their civil responsibilities, as well as the freedoms they were promised outside of the Soviet Union had yet to produce anything whatsoever. The region hadn't changed at all following the fall of the Soviet Union, despite the label of a 'democratic state' the political apathy and exhaustion led to little change, and random elections on a whim. The Brokyn Halbyrt sought to bring this change, originally fighting with civility, protesting and striking in front of local government buildings, no one seemed to care or listen. Tensions have been continuing to rise and thanks to the Umbrella Corporation, maybe the collective concerned citizens who form the Brokyn Halbyrt will soon be able to achieve the change they've been seeking for so long.