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Canon Entry 0.2: RESIDENT EVIL ZERO


Summary
The prequel to the Mansion Incident, Resident Evil Zero stars rookie S.T.A.R.S. officer Rebecca Chambers on her first mission and the ex-Marine on the way to his own execution, Billy Coen. Throughout several Umbrella-operated facilities, Rebecca and Billy form an unlikely alliance as they attempt to survive an outbreak in its mere infancy, while delving into the mysterious locked-away secrets of the Umbrella Corporation, uncover a conspiracy ten years in the making, and learn the horrifying truth of a leaked virus that will change the world forever.

Part 1 - Ecliptic Express (July 23, 1998 20:17)

It's early night, and the Ecliptic Express, an Umbrella owned and operated train, is on its way to the Umbrella Executive Training School, re-opening after a 20 year closure due to illegal experiments conducted by Dr. James Marcus, one of the original key researchers in the development of the T-Virus. The train is attacked by a mysterious man in white, using leeches to infiltrate and infect all passengers heading to the facility.


Two hours later, S.T.A.R.S. (Special Tactics and Rescue Service) Bravo Team flew into the Arklay Mountains from Raccoon City, on a special investigation into the mysterious cannibalistic murders taking place around the region over the blistering summer months. The team consisted of Captain Enrico Marini, comms specialist Richard Aiken, weapons expert Forest Speyer, pilot and rear-security Edward Dewey, chemist and pointman Kenneth J. Sullivan, and of course, medic and new recruit Rebecca Chambers. Though not technically a S.T.A.R.S. member himself and despite already having a pilot on-hand, RPD officer Kevin Dooley would be piloting the helicopter, due to his previous track record of serving with the unit previously and proving instrumental in the search for survivors. Shortly into the flight, the helicopter would experience engine troubles and Kevin would be forced to crash-land in the woods of Arklay. Cutting their losses for now, Kevin stayed behind and Bravo dispatched out into the forest beginning their investigation. Not too long into their search, Rebecca spots an overturned MP vehicle with two corpses inside, and a court order for the execution of a soldier named Billy Coen for unlawful death of human beings during time of war. Bravo splits up from here, as Rebecca stumbles upon a train, stopped dead in its tracks in the middle of nowhere. Steeling herself, Rebecca enters the train, and encounters a bloodbath of strewn luggage and scattered corpses. Entering the next cab over, Rebecca uncovers something far worse: to her pure shock and utter horror, one of the corpses rises and attacks her, as behind her, two more close in.
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Canon in Gameplay #1
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RE0 and many other games in the series occasionally offer the chance for unique scenes and scenarios to play out depending on player choice. In this early scene, players can choose to either run away from the encroaching zombies or have Rebecca gun them down. Choosing the latter unlocks an extremely short scene where Rebecca expresses her confusion at the risen corpses, thinking "they were dead".
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The Conductor
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There's a unique zombie in this early scene, identifiable by his conductor uniform. Based on a keycard found later in the train, his name is Jimmy Lewis. If not killed here or in subsequent pass throughs, Lewis will serve as a minor nuisance as he follows you from train car to train car, serving a small recurring role as an antagonist for the true ammo conservationist.

With the corpses at her feet unmoving once more, Rebecca presses on to the next car, knowing deep down there's probably more where that came from. She has her first brush with Billy Coen but it's not a friendly introduction, as Coen as his gun trained on her, and Rebecca's rookie status shines through, as though she maintains her calm under pressure, she lacks the assertiveness to stop Coen from walking away from her. Rebecca has little time to dwell on this, as suddenly her teammate Edward Dewey crashes through a window, warning her of zombies and monsters in the forest (nothing we didn't know already, but the effort was still appreciated). Rebecca, in her status as medic, of course does nothing to even attempt treating Edward's wounds as Cerberus crash in after him. Rebecca takes them down with relative ease and goes after Billy. Billy suggests a team-up to survive this crazy nightmare while giving Rebecca a little ribbing; Rebecca has it in the back of her mind that this man supposedly killed 23 people and just takes this, even going upstairs to the dining car on her own to prove something to this legally convicted criminal (look, RE0 is far from perfect alright). Regardless, Rebecca encounters a friendly old man in the back of the dining car, but oops, he's not a friendly old man, he's a leech monster, and Rebecca is overwhelmed and swarmed with the buggers until Billy rushes upstairs, shooting the leeches off Rebecca before doing a bullet time dive to accurately snipe two leeches. Maybe this Billy guy isn't so bad after all. The train begins operating again under unknown circumstances; knowing he could've easily left her to die, Rebecca reluctantly agrees to the team-up.
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Canon in Gameplay #2
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At this point, Rebecca and Billy will be partnered up for a majority of the game bar a few key moments. Just as soon as they're together though, they're forced to split up almost immediately; it's up to one character to head to the engine car, while the other restores power to the rest of the dining car. Doing the latter keeps one character trapped inside a small kitchen area while still being able to pass items to the other with a dumbwaiter. The way the partner scene is directed, the canon is for Rebecca to investigate the engine car while Billy investigates the roof, though gameplay wise this isn't a smart move. Billy is more adept in combat in both firearm power and health durability, so the more likely scenario on a first playthrough is for Billy to head to the engine car. While this changes little canon wise, it's a minuscule thing to watch out for if interested in a canon playthough.

With Billy trapped in a small room and the engine car locked with a keycard, Rebecca detours through the conductor's office looking for something to jimmy Billy's door open. She finds an ice pick, note detailing what happened to previously said keycard, and then fights a giant scorpion known as the Stinger. If there's one thing RE0 loves it's its random bugs, arachnid, and mutated mammals that show up with no explanation or deeper backstory than "[animal] infected with T-virus". Rebecca frees Billy and they get the keys necessary to secure the keycard. It turns out it's USS (Umbrella Security Service) operating the train, and they're being commanded by Wesker & Birkin, but they're short lived as they overrun by leeches. HUNKs they are not unfortunately. With no one controlling the train, it starts to speed out of control and Billy and Rebecca are forced to activate the emergency brakes, located at the back of the train.


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I've decided to put my fears behind me. I'm not going back.
https://imgur.com/a/du8zgsT - https://imgur.com/a/VTNzDEW