Sonido De Tortuga Island
Sonido de Tortuga Island is one of two small islands located in the midst of the Caribbean Sea off the coast of South America. It is largely flat and covered with thick jungle although a few raised peaks and cliffs poke through the thick tree canopy at the heart of the island. It is relatively small and no longer than a several miles in diameter, but it is practically paradise surrounded by golden sands and crystal clear waters. Its neighbouring island was known as Sanahoria and was located directly opposite across the bay. Sanahoria Island was the more developed of the two, housing a modern day town alongside a thriving marketplace and fishing trade. The town contains a large hotel in its Kohelo district for tourists and an expansive library offering a detailed history of both islands. The surrounding waters are home to an abundance of tropical fish such as barracuda and the seafood markets are one of the main sources of local income.
Tortuga is a largely secretive and unknown place to the outside world. Internet searches bear no trace of its existence and it was undocumented and presumed uninhabited until the United States Army arrived in the 1930s. That same decade the U.S. authorities established a military base on the island used for intelligence gathering, training purposes and weapons testing. It was deemed a necessity at the time due to uneasy global affairs in the build up towards World War II. The military presence on the island kept people away which is why neighbouring Sanahoria was able to flourish. But eventually the U.S. Army
permanently left Tortuga Island and the military base was left abandoned. Settlers soon arrived and constructed a small residency that became known as Ague Village. Although tiny, the local populace flourished for several decades and were left largely undisturbed by the rest of the world.
In the latter part of the 1990s, the abandoned military installation was purchased by Oswell E. Spencer on behalf of Umbrella. Work began on construction of a secret underground research facility beneath the old ruins and following the Raccoon City incident, many researchers migrated to the island to conduct work on various secret projects. Spencer himself also visited the island to inspect the facilities and a photograph of him and the in-house research team was later published in a history book documenting the evolution of the island.
It is believed Umbrella’s research on Tortuga Island ceased following the dissolution of the company in 2003/2004, but the old facility was reopened in 2005 when Oswell Spencer sent Alex Wesker to Tortuga with top of the line equipment, endless funding and a plentiful supply of test subjects to begin an ambitious project to unlock the secrets behind immortality. By now, Spencer was old and frail and his body was gradually giving up on him. His passion to rule over humanity as a god could now only bear fruit if he could find a way to extend his life. He believed the Progenitor Virus was the key and the task he set for Alex, the best and brightest of his Wesker Children, was to create virus that would grant him immortality. One of the researchers working alongside Wesker was a former Umbrella researcher from Germany named Dirk Miller. He idolised Wesker and helped her spearhead the Kodoku Plan; a project based on Charles Darwin’s ‘Survival of the Fittest’ theory to create the perfect virus using a template set down centuries ago from an old Chinese curse. Over the course of a year, Alex used all of Spencer’s money and test subjects on this project before eventually abandoning the plan and leaving for Sushestvovanie Island; a place she had been making preparations as far back as 2000 to take over and rule away from the shackles of Spencer – a man she had come to despise. But before she left Tortuga, she culled the research team by applying the Kodoku principle to each of them. As the only survivor and therefore the strongest and most capable candidate, Dirk Miller earned Alex’s complete trust and she left the project and the experimental virus in his possession.
When Spencer learned of Wesker’s betrayal, envoys sent to Tortuga Island found nothing but an empty, abandoned facility and no signs of the research team or the thousands of test subjects sent there. Miller was now in hiding and without Spencer’s resources, was forced to improvise in order to procure raw materials for the Kodoku Plan to continue. He began posing as a tribal Shaman and gradually drew the locals under his sway using a combination of fear and voodoo rituals. Many people who regularly travelled to the island became mistrustful of the Shaman and stopped visiting altogether. Local fisherman referred to him as the devil and believed he had cast a foreboding spell over the island. Over the next 8 years, Miller continued his work, seeking out new subjects to continue his research and dispose of any untimely visitors who occasionally arrived looking to seek out his research. He was in complete control of the villagers and every inhabitant had lost someone close to them. They became yet more guinea pigs for the experiments.
In 2014 Sonido de Tortuga Island was chosen as the preferred venue for reality TV show Idol Survival; a globally popular entertainment show in which Japanese gravure idols and international swimwear models competed across a series of survival games. But secretly the venue was secured by program producer Mike Seaman, who in reality was an agent under the employ of Chinese conglomerate Shén Yā Pharmaceuticals. Their goal was to uncover Umbrella Corporation’s hidden viral legacy, a legacy they had reason to believe was hidden somewhere on Tortuga island. At the same time, TerraSave were also investigating the island after they received two separate reports of a species of barracuda fish being infected by an unknown viral agent. These fish had bitten a fisherman who later died from his wounds. Mike Seaman secured filming rights on Tortuga Island by bribing the local government and likewise the Shaman welcomed the new arrivals for they would make yet more new guinea pigs for the surviving B.O.W.s of the Kodoku Plan, which by now was down to two final specimens. Members of the Idol Survival cast and crew were attacked by the B.O.W. known as Subject 001193 and soon a biological outbreak occurred, leaving the cast and crew reduced to shuffling zombies. This resulted in the intervention of the B.S.A.A. and a full assault on the island by Shén Yā Pharmaceuticals Special Forces. Only a handful of survivors made it off the island alive. Following the incident, the island was sealed off to the public and all landing was prohibited.
Notable Locations
EMERALD BEACH: – Several miles of sheer perfection with white golden sands reaching out to the lapping, crystal-clear waters of the ocean. The beach runs up to the jungle canopy that covers a majority of the island and affords fantastic views of the sunrise and sunset. Emerald Beach was used as base camp for the 2014 Idol Survival contest. Several traps and trenches were dug into the sand as part of the survival games challenge.
AGUE VILLAGE: – This was the main settlement on the island where the natives lived. Marilou Mabou was a resident here along with her brother Eliseo and their parents. It was primitive in structure, with basic dwellings constructed of wooden cabins and huts made up from the natural resources of the island. There was no electricity and the villagers grew their own produce and livestock. When former Umbrella researcher Dirk Miller began posing as the Shaman, he controlled the villagers through fear using powerful suggestion and faux voodoo rituals. He would often perform ceremonies at the village and sacrifice local animals.
THE CAVES: – The island housed a network of caves beneath its cliffs that contained numerous subterranean tunnels, some of which lead directly back to the ocean. In one of these caverns, B.O.W. Subject 001193, formerly known as Eliseo, retained some memories of his past life as a villager and began to build an underground settlement. He foraged local materials and constructed a primitive hut, even finding and using paint to decorate strange, ritualistic markings on strips of cloth. Any of his former kin that became zombies he would collect and bring down here where they would learn to carry out basic menial tasks from their former lives such as fetching and carrying water.
ABANDONED MILITARY BASE: – A huge structure built in the 1930s by the Americans for military exercises. It was eventually abandoned and left to ruin.
TEMPLE: – Remnants of an old structure largely covered in vines and leaves. The Shaman later claimed it as his territory and placed idols, masks and the skeletons of animals to ward off trespassers. He also employed several villagers to act as guards. When not activated, the Schraube Dämon is kept here and is plugged into a sophisticated computer system where its data can be uploaded to the Kodoku Project mainframe.
HIDDEN RESEARCH FACILITY: – A subterranean base located directly beneath the abandoned military installation accessed via a hidden freight elevator. This facility was used by Umbrella after the Raccoon City incident and later by Alex Wesker and Dirk Miller for the Kodoku Plan. It was full of various laboratories and experimental testing areas. In its prime, many researchers lived and worked down here. In 2014, a single MA-121 Hunter was kept in stasis and ready to be released should security protocols be breached.
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