The Battle Ends

"Heh."

Jill glanced at the Pursuer not far ahead and chuckled, quipping, "This ugly guy might be cruel, but he's reliable as a teammate—much better than some humans, I'd say."

As she spoke, Jill turned her head to look at Brad, who was hiding far away. Her tone and expression made it clear she was taking a jab at her teammate, who was fond of wearing his signature yellow vest.

In the game, Brad was cowardly and timid, a trait that had doomed the entire STARS Alpha Team. Even now, he was a constant embarrassment to the unit, so it was no wonder Jill couldn't resist throwing a dig his way.

As for Brad's fear of the Pursuer, it likely stemmed from the original Resident Evil 3, where the creature had crushed his skull with one hand.

Jill, who in the game had been locked in a life-or-death struggle with the Pursuer, had in reality become a "comrade-in-arms" on the same front, even going so far as to put in a good word for him.

"Alright," Chris said, stepping between the two with a stern expression. "Stay alert. Now is not the time for idle chatter."

"Yes," they replied in unison.

Shortly after, the large freight elevator arrived at their level. As the gates opened, the Pursuer and three Epsilon squads boarded first, heading toward the control center located beneath the castle.

The remaining two squads and the Charon Task Force followed, as the elevator could not accommodate everyone at once.

Meanwhile, the battle on the surface was nearing its end.

Supported and covered by two AC-130s and two CH-53s, the Spear of Olympus had thoroughly swept the airport, barracks, and other major architectural zones of Rockfort Island. Four LCAC hovercraft had also arrived, offloading the main force onto the island.

Faced with such overwhelming force, the surviving island staff immediately raised their hands in surrender.

Even the dimmest among them could guess that the island had been subjected to such a massive assault by the company because of its brain-addled director.

To survive, surrender was the only option; besides, most of these employees were not Alfred Ashford's inner circle.

On the other side, Chris, Jill, and the others encountered fiercer resistance upon reaching the control center. It was packed with armed security loyal to Alfred, along with a significant number of Hunters and four T-103 Tyrants.

These guards and B.O.W.s had managed to survive the strafing runs of the A-10s and the suppressive fire of the AC-130s.

Facing such defenses, if a conventional national army had rashly broken in, they would have suffered heavy losses; even if they managed to breach the final line, it would have been a pyrrhic victory at best.

Fortunately, Chris and Jill had the Pursuer acting as a fire magnet, which made the cleanup operation go quite smoothly.

Moreover, the T-103s were no match for the Pursuer, who toyed with them effortlessly.

In the original game, the Pursuer had been severely damaged and required a significant amount of heat to repair its wounds, which was why it had "casually" consumed a T-103.

Although both were Tyrants, there was a qualitative difference between the two models.

In less than ten minutes, every area of the underground control center—save for the central control room—had fallen into the hands of the Charon and Epsilon units.

Before the troops could even breach the central control room, the mentally unstable Alfred Ashford took his own life, preferring death over falling into Spencer's hands.

It was a pity that, in Alfred's eyes, the head of Umbrella was still Spencer, so he chose to die rather than have any further connection to him.

However, Alfred did not use the voice-activated override to awaken Alexia, who was sleeping in the Antarctic, as he had in the game.

This was because the Red Queen had intercepted everything, and Alfred's voice-print password had already been copied by her.

According to the game's lore, Alexia needed to sleep for a full fifteen years, or even longer, to allow her cells to slowly fuse with the Veronica Virus.

Alexia had entered her slumber on December 31, 1983, and was awakened by her brother shortly before his death on December 27, 1998, in the game.

(Alfred had been killed by the siblings Chris and Claire.)

Although it was only a four-day difference, it was extremely dangerous for the fusion process of the Veronica Virus.

Sui Bian, who had known how events would unfold, had directly ordered the Red Queen to prevent Alfred from causing trouble before his death. Now, Alexia could sleep for as long as she liked.

According to Sui Bian's plan, once Wang Zhaofeng's research team fully mastered the technology of the Neuralyzer, they would proactively awaken Alexia and use the device to perform a complete memory modification surgery on her.

In the original Code: Veronica, even Wesker had been at a disadvantage when facing Alexia.

If the memory modification surgery proved effective, Umbrella would gain not only a powerful humanoid B.O.W. but also a genius in the fields of virology, chemistry, and biology.

However, there was no rush; the results would not be seen until early next year, at the beginning of 1999.

Inside the bridge of the Boreas:

"Vulture Team has completed the cleanup mission and is preparing to return to the base in Africa."

"The Charon Task Force and Epsilon combat squads have recovered the corpse of the traitor, Alfred Ashford, and are expected to return to the surface in fifteen minutes."

"Data for the T-102 weapon (Pursuer) is optimal. Combat logs have been uploaded, and the Sixth Research Institute will analyze and implement improvements based on this field test."

The bridge crew reported the current status to Sui Bian one by one.

"Sir," a crew member said, turning to look at Sui Bian, who was sitting in the captain's chair. "According to Major Mikhail Victor's report, a total of 36 survivors have been captured. How should we handle them?"

Hearing this, Sui Bian rose from the captain's chair and walked to the viewport at the front of the bridge. Looking out at the smoke-billowing Rockfort Island, he ordered with his hands behind his back:

"Keep the survivors detained on the Boreas for now. The company will conduct repeated screenings to distinguish between those who are traitors and those who are loyal to the company."

"Understood, sir. I will relay that to the Major."

"Good." Sui Bian nodded slightly, then turned to the captain standing to his left:

"Captain, follow the original plan. Once everything is processed, leave half of the security force to continue sweeping Rockfort Island and to protect the engineering team arriving to begin construction and modifications.

After that, immediately recall Charon, Epsilon, Olympus, and the remaining security forces to the Boreas. We must head to the Antarctic Laboratory as soon as possible; there is important cargo waiting for us to recover."

"Yes, sir."

With that, the Battle of Rockfort Island came to a temporary close. All that remained was to head to the Antarctic Laboratory and recover the slumbering Alexia.