Rockfort Island

Rockfort Island
Location:	South Pacific Ocean
Population:	Unknown
Notable events:	Rockfort Island outbreak
Current status:	Infrastructure largely destroyed

Rockfort Island was an Umbrella-owned island off the coast of South America in the South Pacific Ocean.

History

Before Umbrella began operating on the island, it was home to a Hispanic community. After Umbrella stumbled upon the area, some of those who called the island home joined the company; Rodrigo Juan Raval being one of them.

Little information exists of the island prior to the biological outbreak in 1998. What is known is that for some time prior, the Ashford family possessed a palace there.

After Alfred Ashford became the island's administrator in 1993, he foresaw the opening of its training camp that December, along with the completion of the prison and a second personal residence in 1994. The residence was built in, and the builders themselves were later killed to continue hiding its existence. Umbrella Security Service operative, codenamed "HUNK", attended the island's facilities in 1996.

In December 1998, shortly after the arrival of the prisoner Claire Redfield, an unnamed rival of Umbrella, under the command of Umbrella-traitor, the presumed-deceased Albert Wesker, in the search of the T-Veronica virus. The group believed the island to house Alexia Ashford who, according to information they had collected, was the sole carrier of the virus. During the attack, many of the island's paramilitary trainees and guards were slaughtered as a bombing campaign took place. Most of the survivors were afterwards infected with the t-Virus, which had escaped during the search for T-Veronica in the research facilities.

It was at this point that Claire Redfield was released by Rodrigo, who had been injured (but not infected) during the attack, believing that she would die either way. Escaping a zombie attack in the prisoner cemetery, Claire stumbled upon another uninfected survivor, Steve Burnside, who had been condemned to the prison camp along with his father.

Exploring the island, Claire would be repeatedly hunted by Alfred Ashford, who had also escaped the attack. Due to the short period of time between Claire's arrival and the attack, he believed her to be a spy connected with the attackers.

Witnessing the departure of several C-10 transport planes, which carried survivors on an as yet unknown vector, Claire and Steve began searching for an airport, finding one underneath the Ashford palace.

Escaping the island just before a series of large explosions, Claire was forced to defeat a Tyrant sent personally by Alfred to kill her to keep the Plane safe. Later, they attempted to steer the plane in the direction of Hawai'i. They would soon discover that the transports were auto-navigated by Alfred in his harrier to land near the Antarctic Base in the south pole.

The island was heavily damaged by the self-destruct, but the charges failed to destroy the whole island, and even left the outbreak uncontained. The training facility was left partially standing, though with the ground-up badly damaged, as was the airport and his private harrier port.

Former S.T.A.R.S. member and anti-Umbrella activist Chris Redfield later found the island, having climbed the cliffs by hand in search for his sister Claire, whose location was given to him by Leon. Its facilities half destroyed and under the total control of Wesker and his surviving HCF operatives, some of his men appeared to have become zombies since Claire's departure. Chris managed to find the still alive Rodrigo in an underground cavern below the training facility, who informed him of his sister's escape, saving him from the Gulp Worm before he finally died of his injuries. After encountering Wesker, the two learned that Alexia was alive in Antarctica with Claire. The two then left the island on a race to reach the Antarctic first.

The island was presumably abandoned as no further record of it is mentioned in later Umbrella documents.

Landmarks

Operating as both an illegal prison camp and para-military training facility by the corporation, Rockfort was administered until the time of its abandonment by Alfred Ashford, whose father was a researcher for, and whose grandfather a co-founder of Umbrella, Inc.

Besides the prison and training camp, the island also featured a large subterranean airport holding several C-130 sea-capable cargo planes; at least two harrier jets owned personally by Alfred; a small but lavish palace for hosting of dignitaries, and a private residence for Alfred and his sister Alexia on a hill behind - access to and even knowledge of its existence being tightly guarded by Alfred. Several laboratories and B.O.W. stores were located underground within the island, including a supply of a variant of the t-Virus, and an experimental T-103 (batch number "T78").

Gallery

Concept art from Resident Evil Archives.

Private Residence Concept Art.

Concept Art.

Concept Art.

Concept Art.

Bibliography

• Sumner, Christian; Shotten, Brian; Owen, Michael, eds (9 November 2005). Resident Evil Archives: Umbrella's Virus Uncovered. Translated by Zpang America, Inc.. BradyGames. ISBN 0744006554. 

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