"Discipline, Obedience, Loyalty" ~ Company Employee Slogan
Also known as the "Umbrella Research Center." The Umbrella Management Training Facility served as one of the Umbrella Corporation's first among many facilities. Its purpose was to educate prospective officers and executives of Umbrella, but it also served as the private research facility of James Marcus.
History
The MTF was built along with the Ecliptic Express rail system and the Arklay Research Facility in the back region of Raccoon Forest during the 1960s and was completed in August 1968. 1 The facility's first director was James Marcus, one of the co-founders of Umbrella. Marcus was shuffled into his position by Ozwell E. Spencer in Spencer's effort to minimize Marcus' standing within Umbrella. Despite knowing precisely what Spencer was thinking, Marcus kept focused on his research. Despite being head of the facility, Marcus cared very little about the actual training of staff. Instead, the facility was used by Marcus as a research lab for the Progenitor virus, and he secluded himself. Albert Wesker and William Birkin were two particular students educated at the facility, and the two quickly earned Marcus' attention and later, trust. 2 On January 13, 1978, Marcus successfully developed the t-virus at the facility. Often using staff or students of the facility as guinea pigs, Marcus continued his experiments with both Progenitor and t, even after the facility was closed down by Umbrella in July 1978.
Eventually, Marcus became infatuated with his leech specimens. He continued his experiments with his leeches right up until 1988, when he was assassinated by Wesker and Birkin under orders from Spencer, and the facility was completely abandoned by Umbrella. In May 1997, a containment spill occurred in the training facility.
The facility remained abandoned until the summer of 1998, when Umbrella ordered the "Reclamation Project", an attempt to reclaim the facility and bring it back under operation. Under the leadership of Wesker and Birkin, two teams were sent. However, the revived Marcus in the form of the Queen Leech had attacked the facility and infested it with leeches and B.O.W.s. The first investigation team was wiped out by the leeches and B.O.W.s infesting the facility while the second investigation team on route to the facility on the Ecliptic Express was also wiped out in the middle of Raccoon Forest by the leeches. 3
S.T.A.R.S. Bravo team member Rebecca Chambers, along with convict Billy Coen, uncovered the facility on July 23, 1998. As Wesker and Birkin watched events unfold behind the scenes through live camera feeds of the entire facility and discovered Marcus' involvement, the two collected combat data from Rebecca and Billy's encounters with the facility's B.O.W.s. Eventually, Wesker left to rejoin the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team while Birkin set off the self-destruct sequence in the facility, rendering the birthplace of the t-virus a mass of rubble on the morning of July 24.