Mission Log: Operation PHANTOM EXHUMATION
Location: Blue Umbrella Corporation Headquarters, Briefing Room 7B
Date: December 20, 2011
Time: 2100 Hours
The air in the briefing room was cold, sterile, and humming with the low thrum of advanced electronics. Four soldiers, clad in the black, non-reflective tactical gear of Blue Umbrella's elite Reclamation Division, sat in rigid attention. Among them was John Michael Kane, though to a select few in a buried past, he was still known as Alen.
At the head of the polished obsidian table, Dr. Elias Veynor, a man with a sharp, calculating gaze and a demeanor of absolute authority, tapped a control panel. The main monitor flickered to life, displaying a satellite image of a rugged, storm-lashed island.
"Soldiers," Veynor began, his voice a low, gravelly command that demanded absolute silence. "You have been selected for a task of paramount importance and extreme peril. This is not a grab-and-go. It is an archaeological dig in a live battlefield. Your objective: penetrate a hostile environment, collate any and all surviving data, and retrieve biological samples from a failed research project. Survival is not guaranteed."
He zoomed in on the island. "This is Sein Island. A black site, scrubbed from all maps. For the last decade, it served as the personal laboratory of one of the most brilliant and twisted minds to ever emerge from the ashes of the old Umbrella Corporation: Dr. Alex Wesker."
An image of a severe-looking woman with cold eyes appeared on a secondary screen.
"While Albert Wesker sought godhood through physical power, Alex sought immortality through consciousness transfer. She was Oswell Spencer's right hand, and in many ways, more disturbing than her more famous counterpart. Her tool was the T-Phobos virus."
Veynor proceeded to brief them, detailing the island's history, Alex's manipulation of the locals, the bracelets, the Afflicted, and the 2011 incident that led to the tower's destruction and her presumed death.
"The Monument, her central HQ, is a crater," Veynor stated flatly. "The self-destruct saw to that. But a mind like hers doesn't keep all its secrets in one place. We believe backups exist. Hidden labs in the mines, encrypted caches, preserved samples. Your mission is to find them before the BSAA or any other organization stumbles upon this graveyard."
The monitor began cycling through grotesque images of the island's inhabitants: Afflicted, Rotten, Glasp, the monstrous Orthrus hounds.
"These are what remain of her work. They are aggressive, unpredictable, and still very active. Engage with extreme caution, but prioritize stealth. Your primary goal is acquisition, not extermination." The screen paused on a horrific, shifting mass of fused bodies. "And if your sensors so much as hint at this… this Dhurlga… you do not engage. You disengage and evade. It is a walking catastrophe. Is that understood?"
A unified "Sir, yes sir!" echoed from the soldiers.
"Gear up. Rest. You insert at 0400."
---
Date: December 21, 2011
Time: 0530 Hours
Location: Airspace over the Baltic Sea
The MH-60 helicopter tore through the pre-dawn gloom, buffeted by violent winds. Inside, the four operatives checked their gear. Kane's loadout was distinct: a customized CQBR assault rifle, a Samurai Edge pistol on his thigh, and the hilt of a black obsidian katana visible over his shoulder. His armor was designed for urban night combat—intimidating, mobile, and deadly.
As they descended through the cloud cover, the island emerged. It was a portrait of desolation. Rain lashed against broken buildings, and a low, creeping fog clung to the ground like a shroud. The helicopter touched down on a sodden patch of earth near the abandoned village.
A crackle came through their encrypted comms. Veynor: "Squad, confirm landing. Move through the old village—it's your fastest route to the lab sector. Stay vigilant. We are eyes-on via drone overhead. Report all contacts."
"Roger, Control. Moving now," the squad leader responded.
The village was a ghost town, a maze of crumbling walls and shattered windows. The only sounds were the howling wind and the drumming rain. They moved like shadows, clearing houses methodically. Kane was the first to spot movement—four shambling Afflicted, their forms twisted and horrifying.
He didn't wait. Raising his silenced pistol, he put a round through one's skull. The suppressed thwip was the signal. The squad erupted into controlled violence, cutting down the creatures in seconds amidst the rain.
Veynor: "Clean work. Squad Two, collect tissue and blood samples. Kane, your expertise is required."
"On it," Kane replied, moving forward with a case of vials and tools, his movements precise and clinical even in the downpour.
They pressed on, encountering and eliminating more horrors—a Rotten lurching from a cellar, a pair of Orthrus dogs met with a hail of gunfire. They reached a precipice overlooking a deep chasm. On the other side stood the ruins of the radio tower, but the bridge connecting them was a skeletal wreck of frayed cables and rotten wood.
Veynor: "Damn it. The structure is unstable. It won't hold the team's weight." A pause. "Kane. You're the lightest and most agile. You go solo. The rest of the squad will divert to the town sector and search for secondary data points."
The squad leader looked at Kane, who gave a single, sharp nod. "Roger, Control. Proceeding alone."
---
Kane crossed with agonizing slowness, each step a calculated risk on the groaning structure. He found the mine entrance, descending into the oppressive darkness. His night vision goggles painted the world in shades of green. He dispatched Giant Whip Spiders and Glasp with silent efficiency, his katana a whispering arc of death in the tunnels.
Deeper he went, into the old detention facility. The air smelled of rust, rot, and old fear. He encountered an Ironhead, its skull plating deflecting his initial shots. With a grunt, he primed a flashbang, rolled it, and as the creature recoiled, blinded, he put three rounds into its less-armored side. A Vulcanblubber met a similar fate, lured into a narrow corridor and finished with a well-placed grenade.
Finding an air duct, he climbed, the metal groaning under his weight. Twelve tense minutes later, he dropped into the heart of Alex Wesker's ruined laboratory.
"Control, Kane. I'm in the main lab. The climb was unstable."
Veynor: "Acknowledged. Status of the site?"
"It's a tomb, sir. Ninety percent obliterated. Structural integrity is questionable." Kane moved through the devastation, his boots crunching on glass and debris. Then, he found it—a central server bank, crushed but not entirely melted. He pried a hard drive from its housing. "I have one primary hard drive. It's intact."
Veynor: "Excellent. That's the primary objective. Now, scan for any hidden compartments, secondary servers. She was paranoid. She would have had backups."
As Kane searched, a wave of dizziness hit him. The world seemed to tilt. The sounds of the storm outside faded, replaced by a faint, haunting melody—a lullaby. A memory, suppressed and buried, surged to the surface: a woman's smiling face, shadowy and indistinct, humming. A face tied to a pain he'd sealed away years ago.
Why here? Why now?
Time seemed to stutter. He blinked, and the ruined lab was frozen. A figure stood in the shadows—a silhouette of a woman. She gestured for him to follow. Skeptical but compelled, he obeyed. She led him to a scorched bookshelf, untouched by the destruction around it, and pointed to a specific volume: a crimson-bound book.
He pulled it. With a soft click, a hidden compartment swung open, revealing a secure locker. His lock-picking skills, honed to perfection, finally tripped the mechanism on the sixth attempt. Inside lay three items: a black, leather-bound diary with a rose emblem stamped on the cover, a second, unmarked hard drive, and an old, elegant pair of spectacles.
A deep, instinctual warning flared in his mind. This is not for them. He stashed the items in a concealed compartment of his tactical rig just as the world snapped back into motion. The shadow was gone. The lullaby was silent.
Veynor: "Kane? Report. Your bio-signs spiked. Are you compromised?"
"Negative, Control," Kane said, his voice steady, betraying nothing of the turmoil within. "Minor structural shift. Nothing else of value here. The hard drive is all we're getting."
Veynor: "Understood. Exfiltrate and rendezvous with your squad in the town sector. They've located a potential data cache."
"Copy. On my way."
As he moved to leave, a blood-curdling scream ripped through his comms, followed by the unmistakable sound of massed gunfire and a deep, guttural roar.
It was the Dhurlga.
Kane ran, his enhanced speed pushing him faster than any human should be able to move. He burst into the town square to see a scene from hell. The Dhurlga, a colossal monstrosity of fused flesh and writhing limbs, was absorbing everything in its path. The squad leader was down, his leg mangled, being dragged by two other operatives who were pinned down by Orthrus and Ironheads.
"Kane! Fall back! That's an order!" Veynor's voice screamed in his ear.
Kane ignored it. He charged forward, his rifle barking, drawing the beast's attention away from his comrades. "Get him out of here!" Kane yelled to the others, tossing the primary hard drive to a soldier. "Take this and go! Now!"
"Kane, you'll die!" the squad leader shouted.
"GO!"
He ripped his comms unit out, cutting off Veynor's protests. He was alone. He fought a desperate battle, using cover, expending every round of ammunition, until his rifle clicked empty and the Dhurlga's massive limb shattered his katana. It grabbed him, hurling him against a stone wall like a toy. He felt his leg break with a sickening crunch. As he lay dazed, an Orthrus lunged, its fangs sinking deep into his wounded leg, flooding his system with the T-Phobos virus.
Agony. Then, something else. A surge of power, ancient and familiar. His true Progenitor-derived essence, dormant for so long, recognized the viral invader and consumed it. It didn't mutate him; it fueled him. His eyes flashed a brilliant, vibrant blue. Bones snapped back into place, muscle and skin knitting together in seconds. The pain vanished, replaced by a cold, hyper-focused rage.
Time seemed to slow. He saw the world not as a man, but as a predator. He moved with supernatural speed, a ghost in the chaos. He snatched a fallen grenade from the mud, strode directly toward the roaring Dhurlga, evaded a crushing blow, and with impossible strength, drove his bare hand into its pulsating core. He shoved the grenade deep into the biomass and pushed off, flipping away as the creature exploded from within in a shower of gore.
The extraction helicopter descended, the crew and soldiers inside staring in stunned silence at the eviscerated behemoth and the lone soldier standing amidst the carnage. A rope was thrown. Kane grabbed it, and they ascended, leaving the nightmare island behind.
---
Location: Blue Umbrella Corporation, Debriefing Room
Date: December 22, 2011
Time: 0800 Hours
Dr. Veynor paced in front of the seated squad. "Reckless. Stupid. And inexplicably successful." He stopped in front of Kane. "You are a valuable asset, Kane. One we cannot afford to lose on a suicide charge. That thing was a category-four bio-weapon. The data on your vitals during the engagement is... chaotic. How did you survive? How did you kill it?"
Kane met his gaze without flinching. "It had an opening, sir. A vulnerability in its core from absorbing unstable matter. I got lucky with a grenade toss."
Veynor stared at him for a long moment, his eyes searching for a crack in the story. He found none.
"Luck," Veynor repeated, the word dripping with skepticism. "The hard drive you retrieved is partially corrupted, but it contains significant data. The mission is therefore a success. Dismissed. Get some rest."
Kane stood and left without another word.
The mission was over. Blue Umbrella had what they wanted.
But John Michael Kane had what he needed. Hidden in his quarters was a diary, a hard drive, and a pair of glasses—artifacts handed to him by a ghost from his past, the true prize from Alex Wesker's legacy, and a secret he would keep from Blue Umbrella at all costs.
The game was far from over.