Decline and Fall

Umbrella fell from grace of September 24, 1998, when the "T" had turned a large amount of the population into Zombies. The morning after, the U.S. Government had the city limits bordered off by the military, whilst they began an investigation into the matter.
Umbrella itself was divided on the issue of Raccoon City. Its virologists within the limits spent their time researching a cure, whilst weapons researchers had experimental B.O.W.'s sent in to receive combat data on their effectiveness at killing civilians. The Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service (UBCS) was sent in to evacuate civilians, whilst "Monitors" installed within the four Platoon Delta's gathered the combat data, sacrificing their comrades to save their own lives, where they would receive a very generous sum for the data.
Meanwhile, some employees even turned on each other. Dr. Frost was killed by Monica for being in the way of a G-sample, whilst Yoko Suzuki - a tyrant virus test subject used in an experiment two years earlier - lost her Umbrella security card to the woman, who would soon walk right into the infected Birkin and become a host for his offspring.
Former Umbrella researcher Greg Mueller had a University professor create a cure - Daylight - before the Outbreak, knowing what would soon happen. He was wanted by Umbrella, not due to "Daylight", but because of an experiment Greg took with him when he left - an experimental Tyrant. "Thanatos" was activated and sent outside to kill UBCS personnel attempting to claim it. Unbeknownst to him or his creation, the supervisor "Nicholai Zinoviev" had infiltrated the building. Whilst discussing his plan with a few survivors, Nicholai shot through the ceiling, through Greg's head, and out of his neck - death was instantaneous. The University was destroyed by C-4 charges, whilst the Tyrant was killed by "Daylight" nearby. A fitting end to the beast, one of the ingredients of the anti-virus was the creature's very blood.
Elsewhere in Raccoon, an executive had a UBCS team on the lookout for renegade USS member Rodriguez, who had stolen the executive's "package". Rodriguez was waiting for a researcher - Linda - to return from an Umbrella facility as she left something important behind. This was AT1521 - Umbrella's answer to Daylight. After recovering it, another researcher - Carter - released the experimental "Tyrant T-0400TP" to kill off the MA-125 Hunter R running amok. Although seemingly taking orders from Carter without question, it had already counted the man as a threat - a bomb had been planted in the monster, and Carter had the detonator. The creatures betrayal led to the destruction of AT1521, leaving Linda to have to remember how to re-synthesise it all by herself.
Eventually, Umbrella was unable to delay the Presidents decision to authorise Mission Code XX. With little time left, all paramilitary forces were ordered to clear out. Carlos Oliveira and Jill Valentine were rescued by Barry Burton, whilst Nicholai attempted to escape solo by helicopter. Rodriguez was forced to abandon Linda and pull out, leading to an attempted shoot down by Tommy Nielson. The rocket missed, but the helicopter's sudden emergency manoeuvres led to the loss of the "package", revealing an horrific creation. The UBCS team, and T-0400TP were defeated by the giant blob and absorbed into its body. It would eventually be killed by a group of survivors, who successfully escaped Raccoon by HUMVEE with Linda.
Still, this was not the last story to tell of Umbrella's actions in the city. Leader of Umbrella's paramilitary organisations, Sergei Vladimir, stole the U.M.F.-013 storage system - also known as the Umbrella Archives. Ada Wong, a spy sent into Raccoon to gather "G" for Wesker, had finally completed her mission and hitched a ride on the chopper, witnessing the destruction of Raccoon City.
It would take many years, and many more tragedies to finally gather enough evidence to condemn Umbrella.
Umbrella's fortunes failed to improve in the time shortly after the Raccoon City incident. But with a barrage of false witnesses and Code XX destroying all evidence, all blame for the incident was carefully shifted to the U.S. Government. Despite Linda and Yoko's appearance at the Supreme court, Umbrella survived.
On Sheena Island, undercover investigator, Ark Thompson, operating on behalf of Leon S. Kennedy, succeeded in destroying Umbrella's Tyrant production plant after a senior executive assigned to the island unleashed the t-virus on its citizens. Shortly afterwards, when Claire Redfield broke into Umbrella's Paris facilities in search of her brother, she was captured and sent to Umbrella's illegal prison camp on Rockfort Island. While there, she witnessed Albert Wesker attack the island in search of the T-Veronica virus, another descendant of Progenitor. Escaping the island, she found herself trapped at the Antarctic Transport Terminal, where Edward Ashford's granddaughter, Alexia Ashford, awoke from a self-induced coma with a desire to establish a new order.
With the destruction of Sheena Island, Rockfort Island and the Antarctic Transport Terminal, most of Umbrella's illegitimate operations had been shut down. This, combined with the loss of so many of Umbrella's research and security personnel throughout each of the disastrous incidents, left Umbrella with little chance of reforming said operations or regaining the years of research lost thus far.

Tyrant virus IV

The believed abandoned Training facility too, fell. Two umbrella teams sent to evaluate it for re-activation were killed by the creatures from within and outside of the facility.
From there, stories started stemming from the forest; several killings took place and an elite team of paramilitary units, the S.T.A.R.S. Bravo team, was sent from Raccoon City to destroy the threat, oblivious to its real cause. Only four of these members, Rebecca Chambers, Enrico Marini, Kenneth J. Sullivan, and Richard Aiken survived the night. All of them ended up holed up in the massive Spencer estate and its adjacent areas, where the next day, the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team entered as well, after suffering a similar fate at the hands of the pack of Cerberi.
Later on, the remaining members of S.T.A.R.S. met up at the underground laboratory where the Tyrant T-002 was kept. This Tyrant killed, albeit temporarily, Albert Wesker, and was killed by a rocket blast in the second brawl it offered the remaining S.T.A.R.S..
After the demolition of the manor, the virus sources were thought stopped definitively, but when William Birkin's subterranean laboratories were attacked by Umbrella's Black Ops in September 1998 in an effort to retrieve his G-virus, another outbreak ensued. This infection encompassed all of Raccoon and ended in the forced termination of the entire city. Umbrella was immediately exposed as creator of the virus due to the enormous amount of evidence produced from the scarce survivors, and was shut down.

Still, another outbreak was induced in late 1998, on Rock Fort Island, this time by the revived Albert Wesker and his new employers, referred to only as the Organization. This ended in the partial demolition of the Umbrella installations there and the total destruction of the South Pole Umbrella Research Center.
Yet another occurred in 1998, this time on Sheena Island; an Umbrella owned "Tyrant Plant". Hundreds of adolescents from across the globe were kidnapped and taken there to be dissected, to retrieve a hormone important for Tyrant development.^[10] This infection was caused by the - now mad with power - commander Vincent Goldman. The island was "sterilized" when facility's self-destruct system was activated.

Tyrant virus III

Later, Lisa Trevor's body, by now a melting pot of unthinkable disease, had deteriorated to inhuman levels. Noting she was, while not a zombie, incredibly stronger, slightly more intelligent, and impervious to all damage, Birkin decided to test the NE-α Parasite (by then reputed to kill all its hosts, no matter how strong, within five minutes of gaining control over it)^[8] in her. The results astounded even Birkin: Lisa's body, by then a hideous amalgam of all viruses ever tested on her, overcame the parasite and absorbed its rejuvenation properties, giving her even more destructive capabilities, greater strength, and total invulnerability to gunfire. Even with shackles she could not be bound. After she outlived her capacity when Birkin extracted what would become the G-virus deep from within her, he had her killed and disposed of. Though, due to the properties of the primitive G-virus within her veins, death would not take her away that easily. She would spend the next decade hiding underneath the courtyard.
When the time came in early-1998, James Marcus revived, rejuvenated by the immense power of the first t-virus strains, coordinated into a steady pace by his own DNA and that of his leeches. For more than three decades, the t-virus threat had been averted, but at the time of his awakening, the Arklay woodland was slowly corrupted by the infectious agent. Before long, the Arklay laboratories had fallen. The Research facility was seemingly infected by infected water, causing its employees to fall to anarchy over the relatively long period of time between May 11^[9] and late June, 1998.

Gene virus III

Hosts

 

• William Birkin
• Sherry Birkin
• Chief Irons
• Monica
• Curtis Miller
• Lisa Trevor
• Dexter Whitlam
• Ben Bertolucci

 

Gene virus II

William Birkin underwent distinct stages of transformation each time he was sufficiently damaged, and it is most likely other G-Carriers would also undergo similar stages, although the unpredictable nature of G-virus mutations means that the details would differ. It must also be noted that Birkin was in an extremely decrepit state when he injected the virus into himself; this played an important part in his mutation and influenced the changes his body underwent; thus, it was to be assumed all G-Carriers shall evolve in a different way, depending upon their state of health, time of infection, and details such as those. This was demonstrated by the changes seen upon Curtis Miller, whose changes were influenced as well by the injuries he sustained, and developed characteristics vastly different from Birkin, such as an elongated prehensile tail, height beyond ten feet, and an initial phase upon which he was still practically fully conscious; all of this, even though he retained a massive eye and claws as a nod to Birkin's changes. It also appears as though a separate, conscious mind and independent brain is created in every G-Mutant; Curtis initially retained his mind and consciousness until the eye on his shoulder spotted his sister, then the animalistic side took over. This is more evident when the mutated Curtis sees a picture of his family, in which he forcibly stopped his right arm, trying to restrain it (all the while the eye is furiously blinking), showing that there is a separate consciousness within the eye itself.
Despite the massive shape shifting, the virus apparently leaves traces of the memory intact, allowing brief sparks of sanity in the minds of the afflicted. However, such sparks are brief and usually end in the complete destruction of the host's mind, leaving only mindless, berserk mutants of unimaginable power. Because of this, the G-virus is seldom considered to be a viable option for bioterrorism.

Gene virus I

The G-virus was developed by Umbrella Corporation scientist William Birkin, who had also taken James Marcus's work on the T-virus.
A primitive form of the virus was discovered in the mutated body of Lisa Trevor, on whom the Umbrella Corporation had been conducting unethical genetic and viral experiments for three decades. When she displayed unexpected immune resistance to the experimental NE-Alpha parasite, Birkin and other researchers looked for a cause and found what would later become the G-virus.


The G-virus, shown as a purple, aqueous liquid in a glass vial, greatly increases the host's metabolism, which accelerates cellular duplication and revitalization of dead cells. However, the continual destruction of mitochondria in the host's neurons causes an infected person to degrade to sub-human levels. The host exhibits animalistic behavior, loss of moral reasoning and memory, and becomes driven by self-preservation. Ultimately, carriers become creatures simply dubbed G.
Beyond these qualities, the mutations induced by the virus tend to be extremely volatile. The only known hosts were William Birkin, his daughter Sherry, Curtis Miller and Dexter Whitlam. William injected himself with the virus after being mortally wounded by an Umbrella Security Service unit attempting to recover the G-virus from his labs. Unlike T-virus hosts, G-virus hosts never stop mutating, even without external stimuli, thus causing transformations akin to a sort of artificial evolution, accelerated to levels impossible to be recreated in nature. G-Carriers evolve even faster when wounded, due to the incredible regenerative capabilities of infected cells. Curtis injected himself to denounce the "atrocities" by the WilPharma company, which, in its quest to create a viable "t" vaccine, had apparently infected countless people to use as guinea pigs. Sherry was infected by William. As their DNA matched, she was destined to become like him. The mutations were stopped before beginning.