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Prime universe
(Capcom's primary storyline)

The 2013 Outbreak in Tall Oaks was a mass murder conducted by The Family on the people of Tall Oaks, with President Adam Benford being one of the main targets. The attack resulted in the near-total eradication of its people.

Background[]

At the height of the Cold War, the United States signed the 1972 Bioweapons Convention, promising not to develop bioweaponry. Betraying this agreement, the US began working with the growing Anglo-American giant, Umbrella Pharmaceuticals, to develop bioweaponry on their behalf. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US continued development of their own bioweaponry, under the oversight of White House aide Derek C. Simmons. Simmons, leader of The Family, believed that bioweaponry was the future of warfare, and that to maintain US military might they had to develop bioweapons first.[1]

Conflict emerged with Umbrella in 1998, leading to the accidental outbreak of a modified ε strain in Raccoon City. While the US' own involvement itself was damaging, Simmons himself believed that release of data regarding the outbreak would serve as a tool for enemy states' bioweapons projects, and pushed Congressmen such as Senator Ron Davis,[2] and hawks within the President's cabinet,[1] to support the Sterilization Operation.[3] This project was the total destruction of Raccoon City with an experimental thermobaric weapon, exterminating its 100,000 inhabitants, stopping the spread of the virus.[1][3]

In the aftermath of this operation, it became standard procedure to cover-up information regarding the outbreak. Without a sufficient reason to explain the decision to bomb Raccoon City, the President resigned following intense media scrutiny.[2] Umbrella tried to save its own reputation ahead of a court case suing for damages by declaring the US government to be responsible after they shut down and federalised Umbrella USA to deflect their own guilt onto the company. Umbrella ultimately lost the case in 2003.[4] The Anti-Umbrella Pursuit and Investigation Team, and FBC, were set-up to counter any bio-terrorist threats while, until 2004, officially denying the existence of Bio Organic Weapons.

With the US' bioweapons project dismantled, The Family made efforts to develop bioweaponry in its place with the C-Virus Project.

Planning[]

Around the time of President Adam Benford's re-election in 2012, Simmons, his National Security Adviser, became aware of a plan to reveal the truth behind Raccoon City and the US' connections to Umbrella.[5] As thus would harm both US prestige and allow other groups information on the effectiveness of the weapons, Simmons saw him as a threat to American prestige and their ability to manipulate the rest of the world.[6] This, he saw, was a threat to everything The Family strove to build, and ordered the assassination of President Benford.[1]

By 2012, the Family's C-Virus research was complete, having quietly used isolated locations and combat zones for research purposes, such as Marhawa School and the Edonian Civil War. To assassinate the President, Simmons decided to plant a rogue element within his team, and reassigned CIA agent Helena Harper to the Secret Service.[7] Harper was infamous in the CIA for her history of infractions, and Simmons believed she could be emotionally manipulated into assisting in the attack.[7] The gears were set in motion when President Benford's intent to reveal the truth about Raccoon City in a speech to be held at Tall Oaks' Ivy University on Saturday 29 June 2013. By either luck or design, Tall Oaks happened to be the site of The Family's secret headquarters and the C-Virus research labs,[8] hidden in the limestone caverns beneath Tall Oaks University.[9]

On Wednesday 26 June, Harper and her sister, Deborah, were abducted by The Family and taken to their headquarters. There, she was forced to agree to take part in the assassination plot in exchange for Deborah's safety.[7] Immediately after her departure, The Family began destroying their own facility and releasing bio-weapons to kill any persons that might learn of their involvement,[9] and while Deborah was planned to be executed immediately after her sister's departure, it was decided she too would be infected with the C-Virus.[10]

Attack[]

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On the afternoon of Saturday 29 June, President Benford arrived at Ivy University to prepare for his address in the late-evening. The Family carefully placed "Lepoticas" - B.O.W.s capable of dispersing C-Virus in a mist - at points around Tall Oaks to guarantee rapid infection. Harper made a hoax call on the radio, warning the Secret Service as to a group entering the campus with the intent on killing the President. Per procedure, the Secret Service carefully placed President Benford in a safe room and split up in search for the perpetrators. Having second thoughts, Harper made efforts to convince them to regroup, but in light of her poor record, she was ignored.[7] With the hole in the Presidential defense made, The Family released the Lepoticas, which began turning thousands of people into Zombies. Realising the crisis too late, the Secret Service agents were killed or infected. President Benford himself mutated into a Zombie after inhaling the mist, and was shot by his friend, DOS agent Leon S. Kennedy, as he tried to kill Harper.[11]

The devastation caused by the Lepotitsas was extreme in its initial moments, and the US government quickly became aware of the situation, and the President's death. Pressured by Harper, she and Kennedy reported to FOS they were en route to Tall Oaks Cathedral to investigate a lead as to the perpetrators. Doubting he would believe her, Harper refused to explain why they were going there, or why she had a lead at all.[11] The C-Virus continued spreading around the city, leading to 70,000 estimated Zombies mutating within the opening hours of the attacks.[12] Attempts were made by the agents to save stranded civilians, but they repeatedly failed, and pressed on.[13][14]

Tall Oaks Church became a major destination for refugees, and was broadcast on the radio as a safe haven. Agents Harper and Kennedy were able to escape the city in a school bus carrying armed civilians also headed there, but following an accident all were killed save the two, feet away from Forest Cemetery.[12][15] Reaching the Church, an attempt to get into the Family's base went awry when a Lepotitsa escaped the facility and wiped out the survivors in the building. Along with Harper and Kennedy, they were joined underground by Ada Wong, a Chinese-American agent of uncertain affiliations, there to find the truth as to how The Family stole DNA samples of her. All three became aware of Simmons' ties to the assassination, The Family's viral weapons research and the mutation of Deborah, who had to be killed. A left-over VHS tape was also found, showing a Wong doppelgaenger emerging from a chrysalis, overseen by Simmons, identified only by his ring.[16][17]

Outside of Tall Oaks, Simmons took direct control over FOS' department and began coordinating efforts to eradicate Tall Oaks, as happened in Raccoon City. Discovering Harper had survived, he declared she and Kennedy to be suspects in the assassination plot.[18] A group calling itself "Neo Umbrella" took responsibility for the attack in Tall Oaks, and launched an attack in Lanshiang, China, in a move totally unpredicted by Simmons. Suspecting it to be the work of a rogue Family operative, he left immediately to China to investigate.[19] In Simmons' departure, FOS agent Ingrid Hunnigan became a participant in Harper and Kennedy's investigation of Simmons, and agreed to provide them with aeroplane tickets to China and the falsification of their death certificates to throw off Simmons,[19] though the deception was quickly uncovered.[6] At daybreak on Sunday 30 June 2013, two jets flew over Tall Oaks and destroyed it with two thermobaric warheads.

Aftermath[]

In the following days, both Simmons and the rogue Chinese operative were killed in Lanshiang, and The Family's new leadership eschewed bioweapons. A new President was sworn in, with his Vice-President being a suspected Family member, through the DSO was unable to obtain proof. Outside of suspicions of ulterior practices, The Family emerged from the tragedy more-or-less unscathed, and began a campaign of assassinations of agents investigating them as late as 2014.[20]

Sources[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Resident Evil 6 (2012), file: "Scorched Earth".
  2. 2.0 2.1 Resident Evil: Degeneration
  3. 3.0 3.1 Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999), scene: "Unfortunate Event".
  4. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles.
  5. Resident Evil 6 (2012), scene: "Underground Nightmare".
  6. 6.0 6.1 Resident Evil 6 (2012), file: "The Family".
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Resident Evil 6 (2012), file: "Helena's Crime".
  8. Resident Evil 6 (2012), file: "Tall Oaks Cathedral and the Underground Lab".
  9. 9.0 9.1 Resident Evil 6 (2012), file: "The Catacombs".
  10. Resident Evil 6 (2012), file: "Deborah Harper".
  11. 11.0 11.1 Resident Evil 6 (2012), scene: "Death of a President".
  12. 12.0 12.1 Resident Evil 6 (2012), scene: "Bus Escape".
  13. Resident Evil 6 (2012), scene: "Liz's Death".
  14. Resident Evil 6 (2012), scene: "Out of Time".
  15. Resident Evil 6 (2012), scene: "Tragic Accident".
  16. Resident Evil 6 (2012), scene: "Ada's Birth".
  17. Resident Evil 6 (2012), scene: "A Trip to China".
  18. Resident Evil 6 (2012), scene: "Derek Enters the Stage".
  19. 19.0 19.1 Resident Evil 6 (2012), scene: "To China".
  20. Makoto, Vendetta.
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