…
Turning the oddly shaped rifle over in her hands, Alice's expression mirrored the weapon's strange design.
"Ryan," she said slowly, "are you sure you're just a normal merchant?"
During the test firing, she'd realized something was very wrong—in the best way possible.
The gun was nearly silent when it fired, yet its destructive power was downright terrifying.
The surrounding buildings were half-buried in desert sand, their outer walls reinforced concrete.Under the muzzle of the Askari Kaman Railgun, they crumbled like soggy cardboard.
Since the T-virus outbreak went global, Alice had traveled through countless hot zones.This was the first time she'd ever seen a single-soldier weapon with this kind of output.
"…Alright," Ryan Cole admitted with a shrug. "I'll concede—I'm not normal."
He casually handed her the long-bladed sword still sheathed at his side before continuing.
"Remember this: my people are expendable. You aren't. Prioritize your own safety."
"Thank you."
Alice accepted the blade and met his gaze, holding it for a beat before nodding.
"No need," Ryan replied, passing her a compact wrist-mounted computer. "If this operation works, I'm walking away with far more than you are."
"Let's hope you keep your word."
Half warning, half reminder—Alice strapped the device onto her left forearm, mimicking his setup.
"So," she asked, "how does this thing work?"
"As a businessman," Ryan said with a smile, "my reputation is everything."
He then walked her through the interface step by step, hands-on.
Twenty minutes later…
The Sentinel-Prime transport settled silently into position.A signal tower rose from its cargo bay, and a powerful electromagnetic interference field surged outward, blanketing the entire area.
Ryan tapped at the control console, scanning the feedback data. His expression darkened.
"The zone's too big. Interference efficiency is low, and I can't guarantee how long it'll hold. If you want out, now's the time."
"No."
Alice chambered a round with a sharp clack, her eyes steady.
"I'm taking the risk."
"…Alright." Ryan nodded. "I'll dispatch another unit for backup. Good luck."
Just before exiting the transport, Alice paused and looked back.
"Don't forget what you promised me. If I find out you broke your word—"
"Relax," Ryan cut in calmly. "Umbrella's base is the only thing I care about."
One minute later, the modified Bugatti Veyron Heavy Transport lifted off and surged forward at an absurd speed toward the Umbrella facility.
It wasn't space-capable anymore—but four sets of nano-plasma pulse boosters had been installed, double the original count.
The old fission-based propulsion had also been replaced with a palladium-powered Ark Reactor, meaning the vehicle was actually faster than its original configuration.
The unmodified model could make the trip from Earth to the Elysium Station in under an hour.
Of course, without full force-field shielding, no human body would survive those speeds.
From liftoff to landing, only a few breaths passed.
Stepping out and confirming she was in the target zone, Alice's curiosity about Ryan's origins deepened even further.
"Commander," one of the combat androids said, scanning the perimeter.
"…Right. Let's begin."
Alice tapped the wrist console.
Not that it mattered.
Whether it was her terminal or the transport itself—everything was under Ryan's control.
With five combat androids at her side, Alice didn't notice the discarded clones dumped in an abandoned drainage channel nearby.
"Okay, I've brought the elevator up for you," Ryan said over comms, his face appearing on the tiny display."Stay sharp. If anything feels wrong—pull out immediately."
Ryan had already infiltrated the base through Umbrella's abandoned systems.While he hadn't cracked the White Queen's core yet, peripheral control was firmly in his hands.
"I'm going in."
Alice nodded and charged into the derelict structure without hesitation.
Once the transport confirmed her team had entered the base, Ryan issued the next command.
Half the combat units deployed from Sentinel-Prime toward the objective, while the transport itself hovered overhead—providing surveillance, early warning, and zombie suppression.
With Alice out of the way, Ryan handed the entire hacking operation to a split-core of his replica Red Queen AI and headed to the medical bay.
It didn't take long.
From the dormant body of Carlos Oliveira, he extracted a sample of the mutated T-virus.
"Don't blame me," Ryan muttered. "This is technically helping delay your full zombification."
After collecting enough blood, he returned Carlos to the concealed stasis chamber built into the transport's hull.
Knowing this wasn't the time for research, Ryan shifted his attention to the survivors instead.
A colorless, odorless sedative gas slowly filled the resting quarters.
Claire, K-Mart, and the remaining survivors slipped into deep sleep within seconds.
As Ryan sealed the final blood sample, the AI delivered good news.
Being the protagonist had its perks.
Even without Dr. Isaacs' involvement, and with Umbrella still technically in control, the base posed little challenge to Alice.
Which wasn't surprising.
In the film canon, Alice's telekinetic abilities were outright broken.
If she could kill enemies through remote surveillance systems, cracking a subsidiary Umbrella base was trivial.
With combat androids inside and Ryan locking down the outer systems, failure would've been embarrassing.
What truly thrilled Ryan wasn't Alice's rampage—but the breakthrough against the White Queen.
As the replica Red Queen consumed more system resources, the original AI began to falter.
"Looks like Jarvis really is something special," Ryan mused."Just base source code—and maybe even incomplete—and it still boosted my Red Queen this much."
"Two mid-tier genetic evolution serums for this? Absolute steal."
Once full administrative control was seized, Alice's advance became unstoppable.
With the replica Red Queen fully in charge, Umbrella's security teams were sealed into isolated zones.
They couldn't counterattack.
They couldn't escape.
The only exit route was locked down completely.
Above ground, zombie numbers dropped rapidly under coordinated fire from the androids and the Veyron.
Once eight firepoints were established across all four cardinal directions, the airspace above the base was completely cleared.
With the field secured, Ryan made his move.
Sentinel-Prime descended over the now-controlled base as Umbrella's entire data archive began downloading at full speed.
Under heavy android escort, Ryan—fully armored and masked—rode the elevator down into the underground facility.
Meanwhile, with AI guidance, Alice immediately located the antivirus synthesis lab.
With ready equipment and full AI assistance, the serum was completed quickly—despite the blood she'd already lost.
Of course…
If Alice ever found out that more than half her blood samples had been quietly siphoned away—and that she'd passed countless clones along the way—
She probably wouldn't be smiling.