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Prime universe
(Capcom's primary storyline)


The Rockfort Island Incident[excerpt 1] was a brief conflict that took place in December 1998 between fighters for two conflicting paramilitary organizations in the Southern Ocean, which resulted in the release of the t-Virus and Bio Organic Weapons.

Background[]

In the Summer of 1998, ex-Umbrella virologist Dr. Albert Wesker began working with a rival company and faked his death during the Mansion Incident in order to provide them with the Arklay Laboratory's research data. In December, H.C.F., now under Wesker's command, were given orders to recover samples of the t-Veronica Virus. It was known in the early 1980s that Dr. Alexia Ashford, believed dead, was working on a unique t-Virus strain. Rockfort Island in 1998 was under the control of her twin brother, Alfred, and functioned as a boot camp for Umbrella's security forces as well as a concentration camp for enemies of the company. As the last of the Ashford family, who kept their viral weapons research private, Rockfort was a logical first place to start.

Attack[]

H.C.F. infiltrated Rockfort Island some time in mid-1998. Umbrella HQ was made aware of the infiltration from a dossier recovered in Geneva, and suspected the infiltrator was also an Umbrella employee after three months without being found. Umbrella HQ confirmed that the level of information theft was enough that a prototype B.O.W. was successfully replicated by the rival company.[1]

On December 27, the agent was given orders to make preparations for an attack. A bomb was planted beneath the Military Training Center, which housed B.O.W.s for special training. Released from containment, they were able to travel through an exposed ventilation shaft and out onto the surface. This coincided with an aerial bombardment which caused serious damage to the island's facilities and made it easier for the t-Virus to spread. H.C.F. deployed its agents to search the island for valuable information, and used their Hunter II and Sweeper B.O.W.s to track down and kill surviving Umbrella forces. During the battle, unconscious infected with the t-Virus were mistakenly declared dead and their burial was rushed. On the night of December 27 the rain softened the soil to allow their escape.[2] In the early hours of December 28, Umbrella's wounded survivors evacuated the island from the airport, bound for the Antarctic Base.

The number of uninfected survivors was marginal at the end of the attack. Rodrigo Juan Raval, a Rockfort native employed as a security operative, was wounded and separated from the others. Believing himself the last soldier, he hid at the underground Prisoner management office, and released prisoner Claire Redfield in the process. She and fellow prisoner Steve Burnside found a cargo plane and escaped the island, though attracted the attention of Alfred who set off the facility's self-destruct device before escaping on a Harrier jet.

The following night Chris Redfield arrived on the island, having been alerted to its location through American agent Leon S. Kennedy, who Claire was able to contact via a computer terminal. Chris learned from Rodrigo shortly before his death that Claire was no longer on the island. Looking for information on where Claire fled to, Chris learned their destination from Albert Wesker himself. Finding another Harrier jet, Chris flew off to Antarctica to find his sister, while Albert and the surviving H.C.F. team left on a submarine bound for the same destination to continue their search for t-Veronica after a video feed confirmed Alexia was alive there.

Legacy[]

The events of both this and the subsequent Antarctic outbreak were later relayed by Claire to Leon Scott Kennedy, a rookie ex-Raccoon Police Department cop she had befriended during the Raccoon City Destruction Incident. He would later divulge these events to Jack Krauser, a SOCOM operative, during a mission in 2002 in South America, when explaining his prior experiences about B.O.W.s.

Ultimately, the event was also detailed in several reports, which also included references to Wesker. These reports later resulted in the then recently discharged Krauser to try to search him out after the events of the aforementioned mission, Operation Javier, resulted in his arm being severely damaged.

Sources[]

excerpts
  1. Excerpt from Resident Evil 5 cutscene, Shadows of the Past:
    "ロックフォード島の事件で再会してから"
references
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