Rockfort Island

Rockfort Island was a privately run island located somewhere south of the equator and owned by the Umbrella Corporation. Its location was recognised as the southernmost point of South America on the Pacific Ocean. The approximate co-ordinates were north latitude 32° 34.71 minutes south, east longitude 92° 42.74 minutes west and it has an average winter temperature of 20 degrees Celsius and 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

The history of the island is a mystery but it was home to a colony of settlers going back generations. In the 1960s Rodrigo Juan Raval was born to parents who had lived their entire lives on Rockfort. The modest populace lived a simple life and inhabited a small village, enjoying privacy and isolation and living simple lives. Those who died on the island were buried in an ancient underground tomb in a subterranean cave system. This peaceful existence was shattered in the early 1980s when representatives from the Umbrella Corporation arrived, looking for remote locations to expand their operations. Umbrella legitimately purchased the island from the local government and when an agreement with the native inhabitants could not be reached, proceeded to burn their village down. Now homeless, many of the villagers who survived the cull went on to work for Umbrella just so they could remain on the island. Rockfort was eventually placed under the control of the Ashford family who constructed an elaborate palace to serve as their residence.

In 1993 control of the island was passed onto Alfred Ashford, who was now the seventh generation head of the family. He had just graduated from a top university in England but was never viewed to be talented enough to hold a position of power within Umbrella. The corporation had more or less side-lined him from any responsibility. No one from Umbrella expected anything from Alfred and he was largely left to his own devices. He squandered his responsibilities by using the island for his own private torture facility. He also had a strange obsession with adorning the base with military collectibles. To Umbrella, Alfred was an encumbrance, nothing more than a petty dictator attempting to emulate a greatness that was far beyond him. With no one around to counsel him, his mental breakdown accelerated and he spent his days obsessing over the restoration of his family’s power. However, he did oversee several major expansions to the island, most notably construction of the military training facility which would serve as a major training location for U.S.S. and Anti-B.O.W. squad members. There was also a prison camp and an airport with the prison camp especially representing Alfred’s darker side.

Potential industrial saboteurs and traitors to Umbrella were captured and sent there to be used as human guinea pigs in biological experiments. Once inside, prisoners were held indefinitely until death. The island is covered in many rocky outcroppings blanketed in a covering of trees. Jagged rocks and sharp cliffs ensure access to the beaches is treacherous and the high tides and choppy seas make any escape attempt unwise. Rockfort has many notable locations spread across the whole diameter. The prison is on one coast and a huge bridge crosses a chasm leading to the palace and training facility. There is a lighthouse on the opposite coast.

Rockfort Island was attacked by private military forces acting under the orders of Albert Wesker and the rival company in December 1998. The attack caused a biohazard and an experimental t-Virus was released. Eventually the island’s self-destruct mechanism was activated, yet only the private residence and palace were completely destroyed. Much of the training facility was left intact, although it was badly damaged. The subterranean structures including the hangar, laboratory and seaport also survived the blasts. What became of Rockfort following this incident remains unknown.

Notable Locations

PRISON: – The prison was built in 1994 and used as a holding facility for criminals, convicts and traitors that had somehow wronged Umbrella. They lived in
wooden encampment huts that were very basic, with dirty bunk beds and rotting wooden tables. Security was minimal yet no one bothered trying to escape as the complex was surrounded by high-rise walls with razor wire and there was no way to escape from an island in the middle of nowhere. The prisoners were used either as guinea pigs for experiments, executed on the guillotine stand on the hill, or taken to the alchemist’s hut to be tortured. The Infirmary was located beyond the guillotine stand in an area off-limits to unsupervised prisoners. An Eagle plate emblem had to be inserted into a door here to permit access. The alchemist working there had struck a deal with Alfred and a hidden room was built in the hut next to the infirmary filled with all manner of torturing devices. The Alchemist had a false eye he needed to place into the model of a human body in his office in order to access the hidden door.

Beyond the infirmary were several storage areas for rare materials and a small office. A metal detector system was in place here as authorised visitors from many different companies would often pass through this area. The cells were located underground, next to a small graveyard which itself was located next to a small recreation yard. A watchtower overlooked the yard equipped with a powerful search light and Gatling gun. A sturdy set of gates here required an eagle emblem to unlock and led down to a large bridge that crossed over an immense chasm.

TRAINING FACILITY: – The Military Training Facility was the first phase in the expansion of Rockfort Island and was completed on December 8th 1993. Many of Umbrella’s Special Forces teams have used the facility for training purposes, including the infamous Hunk. Several B.O.W.s were manufactured solely for training purposes, the most notable of which was the Grave Digger. The facility had two main levels above ground and two basement levels. The 1F housed mainly offices and also a changing room, Jacuzzi and sauna for trainees to relax when on downtime. The second floor had a biological experiment room where experiments and baby Albinoids were tested. A large control room also monitored operations across the island. Also on this floor was a model room with a diorama of the base. B1 level contained a small laboratory and an air purifying room. B.O.W.s in cold storage were kept here, including the T078 training specimen. The lab also housed workshops and t-Virus storage. The elevator here also went down to B2 level which contained the ‘Kill House’; a twisted obstacle course designed for the trainees and paramilitary training. One level further down lead to the mining tunnels beneath the facility. It is down here where the ancient tomb is housed, containing mass-graves of the original island inhabitants. On ground level outside to the rear of the training facility was a yard with a working World War II tank parked up. This tank was for decorative purposes only yet it could be moved to reveal a hidden elevator leading down to a large underground hangar where two V-TOL Harrier jets were stored. A golden Halberd from the Ashford family crest was needed to permit access to the hangar.

PALACE: – The Ashford’s grand palace was built over two floors and in later years was furnished to reflect Alfred Ashford’s militaristic tastes. A grand hall comprised of a reception desk and black and white tiled flooring. A door on the left led to a small bathroom stall and a door at the far end to a corridor branching off towards another containing a large conference room, the Ashford gallery memorial room, and a small military museum. The upper floor of the main hall had a huge portrait of Alfred Ashford on the wall and a small casino; complete with a glass aquarium installed across the ceiling spanning the whole room. To the right was another reception room which was Robert Dorson’s workspace. Two gold lugers were needed to pass through the next door which led to Alfred Ashford’s office. The computer on the desk activated a hidden passage leading to a bridge running to the private mansion. Access to the palace could be gained from the prison via the iron bridge crossing over the chasm going underneath the cliff. However, a large rock fall blocked this off during the aerial attack by the rival company in late 1998, making vehicular access impossible.

PRIVATE RESIDENCE: – This gothic manor was built sometime in 1994 as a private house only Alfred was permitted to enter. This was so he could act out his cross-dressing fantasies in complete privacy. Even the family butter Scott Harman and Alfred’s private attendant Robert Dorson were never allowed inside. When the main access to the mansion was badly damaged, Alfred has the prisoners on the island construct a bridge that crossed the waterway from the palace and then killed everyone involved in the construction to keep it a secret. There was also a hidden access route direct from the Military Training Facility but this was blocked off as of 1998. The residence is elevated on a cliff side and can be seen in the distance from many vantage points across the island. The manor itself is purposefully dark, foreboding and in a state of disrepair because Alfred never let anyone near it. Inside, the downstairs area was a library space filled with many rare old books. There was also a dining room with a fireplace and upstairs led directly to the bedrooms of Ashford and Alexia, both of which were exact replicas of their respective rooms at the South Pole facility where they grew up. There was also an attic which housed a working carousel and other toys. The manor was very darkly lit and although some rooms bore the military mark of Alfred, there were also many antique dolls and childish toys on display, including a disfigured, gigantic doll suspended from the ceiling in the main hall. These were definitely traits of Alexia.

SEAPORT: – The underground Seaport was accessed using a submarine docked next to the palace. This submarine automatically led down to an underwater docking bay. Down here was a small reception room with an office and large fish tank on the wall. A door on the left led to the docking bay for a C-130 cargo plane, although three military ‘proofs’ were needed to unlock the control mechanism. The plane could also not take off unless the bridge was raised. Taking the right hand door in the office led to the bridge itself which was used to cross over the open sea below to a storage warehouse on the other side. Various cargo containers and a large hydraulic crane were housed in here. A small elevator led up to the control room for the crane and a door to the second floor area where the bridge could be raised. Several other C-130 planes were also kept at the airport. The submarine used to access the seaport was later commandeered by Wesker and used to reach Antarctica.

LIGHTHOUSE: – Located on the coastline at the head of the island, the lighthouse was visible from across the island and represented a significant landmark.

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