Umbrera's research on insects dates back to 1968, when the team conducted a series of archaeopteryx experiments on various organisms, including insectoids. Perhaps the genes of these small insects are too stable, so after injecting Archaeopteryx virus, the subject insects only showed the characteristics of largeness and increased aggression, and could not be used as B.O.W. Given the many problems of the Archaeopteryx virus itself at that time, the team believes that the problem of the inability to B.O.W. is the virus.
fly
With the birth of the T virus 10 years later, the research and development of the insect-type B.O.W. that had been shelved for a long time continued, and in the initial experiment, the researchers injected the T virus into the scorpion in multiple stages for cultivation, and under the influence of the T virus, the scorpion grew at an alarming rate and eventually grew to a behemoth 10 times the size of the prototype.
The researchers called the 3-meter-long scorpion Stinger.
Stinger concept art
Stinger
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The huge size of the scorpion claw and tail thorn have become excellent killing weapons, with the huge claw, the stinger can easily tear the iron like paper, and the huge flexible tail thorn can unexpectedly attack the prey.
A train body easily torn apart by stingers
In addition to powerful weapons, under the influence of the virus, the sharp hardening of the stinger exoskeleton is hard enough to resist most bullet damage, but unfortunately, the stinger's exoskeleton does not cover the head, so the head has become the biggest weakness of the stinger. Although Stinger will protect its head with a double claw, Stinger is still highly vulnerable to severe damage to the head when attacked.
At the same time, the glands on the stinger's tail stinger are not toxic, which may be because the host ignores the toxic element during selection, or the virus causes the host gene changes to cause the toxicity to disappear.
Shield the stinger on the head with a scorpion claw
In any case, deficiencies such as low intelligence, slow movement, and an unprotected head left Stinger unworthy as a B.O.W. and was therefore abandoned. However, Stinger unexpectedly survived until 1998 and attacked the train during the Zodiac Train Incident, before being killed by Billy after a fruitless attack.
Stinger killed by headshots
At the same time as Stinger, there is also an insect-type B.O.W. project, which focuses on the creation of B.O.W. through genetic engineering, researchers inject T viruses into a variety of insects, through repeated genetic modifications to breed, and then combine all the insect genes after breeding, and then use T viruses as a binder to the gene, through the catalytic mutation of the virus to create a new insect type B.O.W. - Plague Crawler.
This is a 2-meter-long carnivorous insect that resembles a water bug, preferring to hide in a dark and damp environment, and when it finds prey, the plague walker will unexpectedly sneak up on the prey.
Plague Crawler concept map
Plague Crawler
Thanks to their reasonable size, plague walkers are more agile than stingers, and plague walkers like to move in groups when they prey on prey, and use their sickle-like forelimbs to attack prey, while plague walkers also like to use their physical advantages to overwhelm targets and attack them. The plague walker is therefore a product that is quite suitable for killing.
However, the product also has defects, first of all, the plague walker is not suitable for complex combat environments, and because the host is an insect, the plague walker's intelligence is extremely low and has no value as a B.O.W., so the only thing waiting for the plague walker is to be sent to the treatment plant for unified destruction. Unexpectedly, in the process of destruction, some of the plague walkers escaped the hunt and hid in the cultivation center. After the events in the Acre Mountains, the remaining surviving plague walkers were disposed of by Wesker at a low price to Javier, far away in South America.
Close-up of the plague walker's face
The part of the plague walker waiting to be processed
Plague walkers encountered in South America
Although both insect B.O.W. developments failed, Umbrera still did not give up on the study of insects. Inspired by the plague walker genetic modification precedent, Umbrera believed that by adding genes from other organisms to improve product intelligence and performance, the Akray Institute opened a new B.O.W. project guided by this genetic modification policy.
After the researchers of the project implanted the modified fly gene into human eggs by artificial insemination, they added the T virus as a binding agent to perfectly combine the original unstable cross-species combination genes, re-implanted the cultivated modified eggs into the female body, and the women to be implanted will give birth to B.O.W.
Because the metamorphosis of this insect-to-human mixture is similar to the synthetic beast nature of Greek mythology, the B.O.W. inherited the name of the synthetic beast, Chimera.
Chimera
Early Concept Diagram 2 of the Chimera
Chimera concept map
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Since the Chimera is still human in nature, it is not strictly an insect type B.O.W., but the addition of fly genes makes the Chimera present a large number of fly characteristics, so this mutant human looks more like a disgusting large fly. The half-human, half-insect state allows the Chimera to have both human bones and insect exoskeletons, and its sickle-like claws are distorted and alienated from human hand bones.
Comparison of human hand bones and Chimera hand bones
These big flies like to hide in dark corners such as ceilings and pipes and use their sharp claws to easily cut off the heads of their prey, and their combat effectiveness even exceeds that of hunters α. In addition to being a weapon, the claw is also the most important tool for the Chimera to climb and hang on the wall.
Inside of BIO-HAZARD, p.55: Secretly crawls over the head of the prey and surprises the α the 猎猎. The destructive power and agility created by the twisted skeleton and the thick muscles entangled in it both outweigh hunters, and the level of combat capability is quite high.)
A Chimera on the ceiling who attempts to hunt down a target
Terrible lethality is not the main advantage of the Chimera, the real scary thing about the Chimera is that it is equivalent to the development rate of flies, in other words, the newborn Chimera can develop into a mature body in only a few days, so the Chimera can be mass-produced at a terrible speed. Although the cloned Chimera does not have the ability to climb walls, the cloned product moves more quickly on the ground. At the same time, the adult Chimera has countless larvae in its body, and it is not known whether these larvae can also develop into the Chimera, if so, then the number of Chimeras will grow exponentially.
Chimera juvenile concept diagram
But the Chimera, with such excellent performance, is still a B.O.W. with no prospects, because the Chimera's intelligence is only fly level, so the Chimera project has been shelved. However, unlike the tragic fate of the Plague Walkers, the Chimera is still cloned and produced at the Russian base in Umbrera.
The Chimera encountered in a Russian base
The deadly insects that linger in the Akray Mountains are also wild insects affected by the T virus, and in the year from May 1997 to May 1998, insects in the Akray Mountains were also affected by the T virus due to the T virus leakage incident at the Institute.
The Akure Mountains are teeming with mutant creatures
The centipede, originally a fierce carnivorous insect, became more and more massive after being affected by the T virus. The most representative is the centipede hidden in the nursery, the Centurion, which is about 10 meters long and may be the largest centipede in the Akure Mountains.
Centurion
But Umbrera's investigation of the grow-up center did not find any test records of centipedes, which determined that the centurion was a product of a wild infection. Unlike the multi-injection virus cultivation method of Stinger, centurions are mutated by secondary infection after eating substances with leaked T viruses.
Centurion Concept Map – Resident Evil 0 N64 Stage Drawn
With the increase in size, the food of the past could no longer satisfy the centurion's growing appetite, so driven by instinct, the centurion aimed food at humans. On July 23, 1998, the centurion, after discovering the intruder of Rebecca and Billy, launched a surprise attack on the two and tried to eat Rebecca, but was unsuccessful and killed by Billy.
Centurion Hijacks Rebecca – Design Draft
The big centipede was eventually killed by Billy
Centurion Hijacks Rebecca – The Game
As a B.O.W., the insect-shaped B.O.W. is undoubtedly a failure, and the root cause is that the limited intelligence of the insect as a host limits the space for improvement of these B.O.W., so Umbrera quickly gave up the study of the insect-shaped B.O.W., which is just a speck of dust in the path of Umbrera's inhumane experiment.
Here thank you for the guidance and help of the Tieba big guy professional stalker and the flying bird of the vine on this issue of the article, if you like this issue of science, may wish to pay attention to my B station account, thank you for watching, I am lazy Ding, we will see you in the next issue.
[1] Resident Evil Director's Cut: INSIDE OF BIOHAZARD, P54;
[2] Resident Evil The Umbrella Chronicles Art Of Arts, P45, 50, 56, 60;
[3] Resident Evil Archives Guidebook, P152, 166, 168, 172, 173;
[4] Biohazard 0 Wii Guide, P65, 75, 77;
[5] Biohazard kaitaishinsho, Resident Evil WII Edition, P74, 75;
[6] Resident Evil Zero BradyGames Strategy Guide, P31, 69, 81;
[7] INSIDE OF BIOHAZARD THE DARKSIDE CHRONICLES, P61;
[8] Saturn BIOHAZARD Official Guide, P74;
[9] BIOHAZARD 3 LAST ESCAPE Official Guidebook - Fulfillment Of Her Escape, P140;
[10] Chronicles of Umbrera – Chimera Profile (Game Documentation);
[11] Chronicles of Umbrera – Stinger Information (game documentation);
[12] Resident Evil Diablo Chronicles – The Plague Walker (game documentation).