UMBRELLA SECURITY SERVICES'S ZOMBIE OUTBREAK RESPONSE TEAM (U.S.S. ZORT)

Founding and early history

Umbrella was founded in 1968 by Lord Oswell E. Spencer and his associates James Marcus and Edward Ashford following their discovery of the Progenitor virus in Africa. During its early years, the company was almost solely dedicated to research on the Progenitor and its potential applications. Spencer, driven by his misanthropic worldview, became curious how the virus might be used to enhance the human race for the better and built up Umbrella as his means of exploring the possibility of remaking society in his image.

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Over the years, Umbrella quickly expanded across the world, establishing itself as the world's leading pharmaceutical enterprise. This was all a cover, of course, and Umbrella's true work revolved around the research and development of biological weaponry. By 1978, the company's co-founder James Marcus had discovered the T-virus after introducing the Progenitor virus to leeches. With the discovery of this new viral strain, Umbrella's genetic research advanced by leaps and bounds.

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In 1988, Marcus was assassinated on Spencer's order and his research on the T-virus was passed on to William Birkin. Birkin would later go on to discover the G-virus through continuous experimentation on Lisa Trevor, Umbrella's longest-surviving human test subject.

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1998

1998 proved to be a disastrous year for Umbrella. The corporation's co-founder James Marcus, having apparently been restored to life through his Queen Leech, had initiated a plan to exact vengeance against Umbrella. Now able to mentally control swarms of infected leeches, he scattered the T-virus inside Umbrella's Arklay Research Centre and Arklay Laboratory facilities, actions which would later lead to the virus spreading into Raccoon City, dooming the town to destruction.

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Though Marcus was finally killed and the Umbrella Research Centre and Laboratory were destroyed by the S.T.A.R.S., Umbrella had to take steps to ensure that the public would never become aware of their illegal activities and went about blackmailing and bribing most of Raccoon's city officials in order to disgrace the S.T.A.R.S. and block their investigation.

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Unfortunately, Umbrella could not keep the truth from coming out indefinitely. Viral run-off left over from the Mansion Incident was seeping into the city's water treatment plant, leading to a number of isolated infections occurring in the city. The situation deteriorated rapidly, however, when Umbrella sent in agents to retrieve samples of the G-virus from Dr. William Birkin, who was planning on betraying the company and selling his creation to the US military. Birkin was gunned down in his laboratory and as his dying act injected the G-virus into his own body, turning himself into a constantly-mutating abomination. As his mental state rapidly degraded, Birkin hunted down the Umbrella agents who had tried to take G away from him, murdering each of them. In the process, he also damaged an attaché case full of T-virus samples, shattering them and contaminating the sewers with the toxin. Sewer rats would contract the virus and carry it up to the city, leading to the infection of almost the entire population.

As Raccoon City became plagued by zombies and other monstrosities, Umbrella sent in agents to secure the company's most sensitive documents and research materials. They also used the outbreak as an opportunity to field-test several new B.O.W.'s, such as the Nemesis T-Type, which was deployed to hunt down and eliminate the surviving S.T.A.R.S. members.

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Despite Umbrella's best efforts, they could not come out of such a large-scale disaster unscathed. Following the sanitation of Raccoon City, the corporation found itself indicted and became entangled in lengthy court proceedings. Umbrella had many ties with key government officials and seemingly limitless financial reserves, allowing them to drag out the proceedings for several years.

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Decline and collapse

After the Raccoon City Destruction Incident, Umbrella spent the next five years struggling to stay afloat. As the Raccoon Trials were dragged out, the company's stock prices began to suffer and they had all but lost the trust of the American public. Their international operations were also being threatened as many of their research facilities across the world began to go dark one after another, suffering attacks from various groups and individuals determined to put an end to their bio-weapons research.

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By March 2003, all of Umbrella's operations had been shut down and the company had been found guilty on all charges relating to its insidious research and its involvement with the destruction of Raccoon City. Umbrella had folded; the corporation was forced into bankruptcy and its leaders had all either been arrested or had gone into hiding. But even with the downfall of Umbrella and the exposure of the menace of B.O.W.'s to the world, their legacy remained. Many of the numerous bio-weapons and viral agents developed by Umbrella had been leaked on to the black market, allowing both rogue nations and terrorist organizations to obtain them and the means of producing them themselves. A new biological arms race had begun and would lead to several other horrific incidents in the future.

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Restoration

In 2007, elements of Umbrella's old management came together in an effort to rebuild the organization. However, this new Umbrella would become a private military organization and, rather than follow the doctrine of its predecessor, would dedicate itself to combating B.O.W.'s and suppressing biohazardous events. Though this new Umbrella Corps would share the name of its predecessor, it would ultimately oppose everything they had stood for.

In the years to come, the Umbrella Corps (also known as Blue Umbrella) would carry out a number of paramilitary operations in conjunction with the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance, conducting cleanup operations of various bioterror sites, such as the Plaga outbreak in Kijuju. The BSAA were initially distrustful of Umbrella, but would later work with them more directly. In 2017, elite BSAA member Chris Redfield led an Umbrella team to Dulvey, Louisiana to eliminate the rogue B.O.W. Eveline and to capture Lucas Baker, who had ties to the criminal syndicate known as The Connections. Umbrella suffered heavy losses during this operation and Lucas was killed by Chris after mutating into a monstrous form. (credit https://monster.fandom.com/wiki/Umbrella_Corporation)

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Establishment of the U.S.S.'s ZORT Division

 In 2020, the U.S.S ZORT was established in Southern Arizona, because the CEO (me) used to drive a used police SUV, which is equipped with police strobes for private security work, (yes, I am actually a licensed for unarmed and armed security here in the state of Arizona) kept getting pulled over by DPS on his way to security assignments. After talking to an attorney about the issue, it was suggested that stickers be put on the vehicle to help identify that it is not a law enforcement vehicle. So, while watching World War Z, I had a little fun and made my police vehicle into a zombie apocalypse security vehicle. From a distance, it still looks professional enough to be used on security assignments, but up close, you can tell it is not a law enforcement vehicle. To make it more exciting for me, and more fun for the public, I decided I would build an actual working website with a working phone number. You would be surprised at how many people come up to me asking what division of the government ZORT is a part of. (Yes feel free to take pictures of my vehicle if you see it.) Feel free to also make your vehicle a ZORT vehicle also!