Founding In 1996

Raccoon City was expanding in size in the 1990s.  In the events of terrorism cases in the 1980s and 1990s, there emerged a need for better policing to help with restoring law and order.  Besides urban crime, the city was looming with the threat of domestic terrorism.  The Raccoon City Police Department lacked the money to fund or personnel to counter the problems, the local government looked somewhere else for a solution.   In 1996, Mayor Michael Warren announced the creation of an elite law enforcement team as part of his "Bright Raccoon 21" urban redevelopment campaign, which was based on funding from the private sector rather than local taxes.  Being the largest employer in the USA, The Umbrella USA provided the funds needed to start the S.T.A.R.S. teams. Another company that provided funds was the Kendo Gun Shop based in Raccoon City.  They provided the Samurai Edge gun.

Ever since the creation of S.T.A.R.S. there has always been two major teams of six members.  The Alpha Team was led by Albert Wesker and the Bravo Team was led by Enrico Marini.  Although Wesker maintained dominate control of both S.T.A.R.S. under the influence of Umbrella.  S.T.A.R.S. recruited from outside the established police force, instead relying on military veterans and specialists in a variety of fields from computer hacking to chemical disposal. Entrants from the police department were welcome into the organization as long as they pass the required exams.  The youngest to be recruited was Rebecca Chambers, an 18-year-old medic expert, although not trained for combat.

The Mansion Incident

The date is May 1998, in the Arklay Mountains.  The Umbrella facility fell victim to a virus release of the T-Virus strain.  

There were numerous medical, administrative and private security staff on site, the situation eventually became untenable as more personnel continued to be infected.  Without containing on-site measures, the experimental bio-weapons housed secretly in the underground lab beneath the mansion had escaped, massing on the locals and mutilating them in the Arklay region.  Over the course of the following two months, the RPD couldn't find any suspects to the gruesome deaths as there was no motives.  Unable to solve this case with the RPD, Police Chief Brian Irons assigned the S.T.A.R.S. teams to investigate.

Upon Umbrella's orders to Albert Wesker, Wesker was fully aware of what is occurring and planned on an investigation mission he called "X-Day." These direct orders from Umbrella were for him to make his way into the facility and destroy it, contain the virus outbreak and escape with biological samples of the virus.  To keep any witnesses from talking, Wesker plans on destroying both teams of S.T.A.R.S. during the mission.

The date is July 23, 1998, the S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team, led by Enrico Marini was sent in to the Arklay Mountains northwest of Raccoon City where it's believed that is where the killers of the gruesome deaths are at.  Their helicopter engine suffered from failure and the team was forced to land in the middle of the forest mountains of Arklay near the Spencer Mansion.  Unfortunately, Kevin Dooley, and Edward Dewey, both co-pilots were killed upon landing.  The majority of the remaining Bravo Team had made it to the nearby mansion, trapped.  During the investigation, Captain Enrico Marini discovered a subway tunnel that lead to the nearby NEST facility, where he learned that Umbrella had planned on the team's demise during this mission.  Rebecca Chambers, however, was split up from the rest of the team and found illegal human research that was performed in the 1970s and 1980s.  The Bravo Team would suffer injuries and even deaths during their investigation.  Enrico Marini was injured due to a Hunter attack; Forest Speyer was attacked and infected by mutant crows while on the east balcony.  Rebecca and Richard Aiken found each other and investigated the mansion to locate Enrico, but were unsuccessful.

After many hours of no contact from Bravo Team, the Alpha Team was mobilized to move in to search for them.  Before deploying, Captain Wesker confronted Barry Burton, threatening his family, that he must participate in the destruction of the mansion and all evidence of the incident in exchange for their safety.  Unknown to Barry, there was no actual plans to murder his family by Umbrella.  They were not held hostage that Wesker had him believe.

The date is July 24 and Alpha Team flew in by helicopter to the last known location of Bravo Team.  From up above, the derelict helicopter of Bravo Team can be spotted, and pilot Brad Vickers landed. The Alpha Team disembarked to look for any survivors of the crash, leaving their weapons and specialty items behind.  The body of Bravo Team pilot Kevin Dooley was discovered.  While searching around for the others in the forest, a pack of Cerberus came from behind, killing Joseph Frost brutally.  Brad panicked and took off, leaving the rest of the team behind and unable to rearm themselves with weapons besides what they were already carrying.  The team ran off in a random direction.  The Cerberus are chasing them.  Chris spotted a mansion up ahead and told the rest of them to head for it and seek shelter there.

After arriving at the mansion, the Alpha Team began splitting up.  Barry and Jill went together to the nearby dining room, leaving Wesker in the main hall.  Barry found a blood stain on the floor and hoping it wasn't Chris's.  He tells Jill to continue on to the next room while he investigate the dining room.  Alone in the next hallway, Jill discovers Bravo Team member Kenneth Sullivan being eaten alive by a zombie that turned its head over its should back at her and started following her to the dining room.  Jill returns to Barry in the dining room, and the zombie followed but Barry took care of things by blowing the zombie's head off with his Colt Python gun.  The two returned to the main hallway to report to Wesker, but he's missing too.  Barry gives Jill a lockpick being the master of unlocking, and then they split up.

Elsewhere in the mansion, Richard Aiken was bitten by a giant poisonous snake that Umbrella calls Yawn.  Rebecca runs off to the chemical store room to locate an antivenom where she meets Alpha Team's Chris Redfield.  Forest Speyer turned into a zombie due to being infected by crows that attacked him.  During their investigation in the mansion, Chris Redfield, Barry Burton and Jill Valentine, Barry secretly destroyed any evidence of the incident as ordered by Wesker.  In an underground tunnel beneath the mansion, Enrico Marini, injured, warns Chris and Jill of a traitor in their ranks.  Before being able to reveal the name, a mysterious person shot him from behind, killing him and ran off.  "Hell, Umbrella!" was his final words.  To keep himself safe, Wesker implicated Barry to be that traitor that Enrico tried to warn of.

By the early morning of July 25, still in the mansion, the Alpha Team had collected evidence of the deaths in the area and the deaths of their teammates by the time they reached an underground laboratory.  Some of the evidence indicated that Umbrella wanted the lab destroyed, along with any other remaining evidence, and S.T.A.R.S. members in the process.  They also discovered Wesker to be an Umbrella employee formally assigned to the lab.  Wesker confirmed his wrongdoing, and revealed he was also planning to betray Umbrella by handing over recovered biological samples to a third party.

Wesker released the Tyrant T-002 from its chamber, as super soldier created by the T-Virus.  This turns out to be a mistake as the Tyrant turns on Wesker, impaling him through the gut with his long claw, "killing" him, and then turning around to face the other S.T.A.R.S.  After taking down the Tyrant, the S.T.A.R.S. continue to fight through the monsters while the triggering system was activated by Rebecca Chambers.  The facility has only a matter of minutes left until explosion, and the remaining S.T.A.R.S. must escape in time.  While the S.T.A.R.S. were on their escape route, Wesker awoken from his injuries due to a virus he injected himself with earlier. With all virus samples missing, Wesker must escape the mansion lab empty handed before the whole place explodes.  The remaining S.T.A.R.S., with three minutes left until explosion, located a helipad where they sent off a flare to signal Brad in the helicopter.  He arrives, but the Tyrant also arrived too.  They fought the Tyrant T-002 that had just gotten a little bit stronger and faster.  After enough gun shots to the Tyrant, Brad drops down a rocket launcher which was used by Chris to blow away the monster into nothing.  With just moments until explosion, Brad landed the helicopter, picked up the rest of the team and they fled together watching the mansion blow up.  The team relaxes during flight and travel off to the sunrise, leaving that horror behind them for now.

Post Mansion Incident

The July morning immediately after the mansion blew up, Brad Vickers piloted the helicopter, carrying Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Barry Burton and Rebecca Chambers back to the Raccoon City Police Department.  After a visit to the hospital for treatment, the team started their research on the Umbrella Corporation in their offices.  In August, Umbrella was able to bribe Chief Irons into disbanding the teams, assigning them to the Raccoon Police Department so he can suppress them and form the Raccoon S.W.A.T., to take over S.T.A.R.S. missions.  The reason for this was because the teams lost too many officers in the mansion incident to be able to function as a team again.  Its seems that the disbanding of S.T.A.R.S had not been officially announced to the public, as during the Raccoon City Destruction Incident at least two people, one being an umbrella employee, suggested calling in the unit despite the fact that the unit had essentially been disbanded by September.  Aware of Chief Irons' corruption, Chris Redfield reported him to the F.B.I. where they conducted their own investigation into him.  By September, the only remaining S.T.A.R.S. that stayed behind in Raccoon City was Jill Valentine and Brad Vickers to continue to do research on Umbrella, looking for the NEST and on the G-Virus which they were made aware of.  Meanwhile, Chris Redfield did his research and found that Umbrella has a facility in Europe.  So he left for Europe under the guise of taking a vacation.  Barry Burton took his family and hide them in a hiding place somewhere in Canada from Umbrella, still believing that Wesker and Umbrella wanted to assassinate them and definitely after the mansion incident.  Lastly, Rebecca Chambers, continued her university education in virology so she can assist in her fellow team members as the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance was formed over time.

Organization

S.T.A.R.S. consists of two teams of six, the Alpha Team and the Bravo Team.  Each team was organized based upon tactical squad formation.  Five members were out in the field while the sixth one was the helicopter pilot.  Each team is required to work a 24-hour shift before switching to the other team so they can stay active while dealing with emergency events.  While no team was superior to the other, however, Alpha Team Captain Albert Wesker held superiority over Bravo Team's Captain Enrico Marini.

Due to the specialist requirements, S.T.A.R.S. was expected to handle difficult and extreme missions, some outside the assessment of the Raccoon City Police Department.  These ranged from scenarios involving investigating large scale organized theft, cyber crime, trafficking of illegal/stolen weapons and contraband, to sting operations on criminal organizations, high risk hostage situations, and halting terrorist activity.  In addition to the types of situations that needed to be investigated, S.T.A.R.S. members were usually both highly trained in tactical combat and talented in a skill and/or subject that would prove helpful for investigations and missions, ranging from disposal and recognition of chemical weapons, bomb disposal, computer expertise, criminal science, ballistics and firearms analysis, and unorthodox forensics.

Recruitment And Selection Training

Members of S.T.A.R.S. were recruited using talent scouts, due to the need for specialist.  The specializations include such things as computer hacking, sharpshooting, disposing of chemicals and field medicine.  Those who weren't recruited through a talent scout, job applications had to be filed with the requirements to take an assessment exam to assess a candidate's skills and talent and history.  Raccoon City Police Department officer Kevin Ryman took the test twice and failed both times.

Members And Status

Uniform And Equipment

S.T.A.R.S. never established an official uniform, instead going through a series of prototype designs which were customized by team members. Clothing worn as part of their uniforms included:

• A white undershirt with the S.T.A.R.S. emblem over the left sleeve
• A similar undershirt with the R.P.D. emblem on the front and sleeve
• M69 Flak vests in various colors
• L2B flight jacket
• N3-B extreme cold parka
• M-65 jacket
• MA-1 bomber jacket
• Body armor
• Shoulder pads
• Combat Knife sheaths
• Leg holsters
• Fingerless gloves
• Watches
• Jungle boots
• LC1 suspenders
• LC2 belts

Weapons:

The standard issue sidearm for S.T.A.R.S. was a modified Beretta 92FS. Officially dubbed the "Beretta 92F S.T.A.R.S. Special", or "Beretta 92FS" for short, it went on to be known by the nickname "Samurai Edge". Constructed by Joe Kendo, one of the Kendo Gun Shop partners, it was another example of Raccoon City's private sector funding S.T.A.R.S. Further customization tailored to the individual officer was also provided to Burton, Redfield, Valentine and Wesker. In Burton's case, it was modified to fire .40 S&W rounds. Combat knives were custom made for the team, who were expected to learn close-quarters combat with knives. These knives sported the S.T.A.R.S. emblem on the blade.

Aside from these standard-issue weapons, S.T.A.R.S. members were also provided with several Heckler & Koch MP5s, with Marini known to carry a Steyr AUG. Frost is known to have carried both an Ingram M-11 and a Remington 870 on missions, while Speyer may have brought the grenade launcher he was found with with him.

Other equipment:

Other equipment provided for S.T.A.R.S. includes a shoulder-cam for recording mission progress on DV Tapes. Both Sullivan and Frost had such cameras which, in both cases, recorded their violent deaths. Chambers, the medic, was provided with a mixing set full of chemicals. Some team members were provided with Walkie-Talkies, though not all from Alpha Team appears to have been provided. Their equipment may have been left on Vickers' helicopter. Wesker and Aiken are known to have used tactical headsets, which would have connected to these walkie talkies to allow for hands free operation if required.

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