Fallout 3 - Prepare for the Future Part 1: History of the Wastelands

Fallout 3 - Prepare for the Future Part 1 - History of the Wastelands

By 11 Year Fallout Survivalist Matt Kelly.

Good Morning Vault Dweller!

How has your time in Vault 101 been so far? By now you will have realized that, despite all the safety and ease of living that a vault gives, hanging out with the same group of people in blue jump suits day after day has got pretty boring. That outside world that those Communist bastards turned into a hellish wasteland looks pretty inviting now, right? Oh sure, you'll face risks. Violence, drugs, crime, sex, and paramilitary organizations that think they know how to rebuild the crumbling American dream better than anyone are all quite common in the wasteland. You've lived quite a sheltered life up until now, and vault populations are quite known to be xenophobic, so it's okay to be a little worried that you, or your friends, don't know squat about the outside world. In order to prep you for your adventure, we've prepared two guides. Today we'll talk you through some of the groups you may encounter in the wasteland, and what you can expect from them. Keep in mind that no one has left a vault since 2241 (1998 on some pre-war calenders), and our records show that a lot of this information came from another part of the country, so our knowledge may be a tad out of date.

The Brotherhood of Steel

A techno/religious organization, and probably the closet thing you'll find to the idea of 'good guys' in the wasteland, The Brotherhood of Steel is a paramilitary organization descending from military and government organizations prior to the war. Primarily focused on hording the most advanced technology left on the planet, they believe it's their role to guard this technology from it falling to the general populous of the wasteland. This is due the belief that those left are neither responsible enough or up to maintaining the technology. And it's no wonder, firearms, medical resources, food and drugs are all used by many factions as a hold over others. And while that may seem a great motive, The Brotherhood is in no way a humanitarian organization. They prefer to remain secretive, rarely getting involved in outside conflicts, or assisting those in need. Very few outsiders have joined The Brotherhood since it's beginning, though they distinguish themselves from many of the more cult like groups in the wasteland by not forcing those already involved to stay. Overtime, there has been splinter factions formed by those who left the core of the Brotherhood. While The Brotherhood is known to be present in the Washington D.C. area, it is not known if these splinter factions have also set up shop.

The Enclave

The last remnants of the prewar United States government. Embracing the impending nuclear war, the Enclave believed that as long as the 'right' people survived, the United States could survive in some shape or form. Initially though, the plan was simply to take the population of the vaults, and depart the wreckage of Earth for another planet. However, the vaults themselves were not just merely an series of survival shelters, but a gigantic social experiment. The Enclave was well aware with the resources available there was no way that, even with the selected nature of vault residents, the whole population could not be transported to another planet. So all the vast majority of vaults had a flaw, a test to see who was the elite of the elite. Vault 12 had a door that would not close to test the effects of radiation poisoning and how those inside would handle it. Vault 27 had double the sustainable population. Vault 56 had all the entertainment videos removed except for one incredibly bad comedian. Vault 34 was overstocked with weapons and no locks on the armory door. Vault 68 with it's full population of 1,000, only had one female resident. And finally, the infamous Vault 13, was designed to test prolonged isolation of a mixed group with various social beliefs, due to stay shut for 200 years. Your vault, Vault 101? It's never due to open...

But for a reason that isn't entirely clear, the plan to leave the blasted remains of Earth behind didn't happen. Whether it be the ship was destroyed or never even finished, The Enclave had to redesign their plan. Hiding out on an oil rig off the coast of the California, The Enclave waited in secret. Eventually they started sending out scouting parties across the mainland, only to discover that mutants and ghouls were in abundance, along with the destruction they left in their wake. Seeing this as a threat to rebuilding a 'real' America, it was decided that the mutant race had to go. However, in the paranoid nature of the Enclave superiors, they decided that along with mutants, the rest of mainland humanity had also been affected in someway. Whether it be due to the FEV virus that brought the mutants about or the background radiation, The Enclave decided genocide of the human/mutant race was their best bet as a final solution, and the only way for a pure America.

While the Enclave oil rig and their plans to commit genocide across the world using an airborne form of the FEV virus was destroyed by a descendant of Vault 13, it appears some smaller outposts have survived with the Enclave rebuilding their power on the East Coast. The Enclave also have quite a distinct edge over their closest cousin faction, The Brotherhood of Steel. While The Brotherhood merely sits on existing technology, The Enclave has spent significant time and resources over the years developing technology that can outgun even the most advanced pre-war technology.

Super Mutants/Forced Evolutionary Virus

While radiation from nuclear bombardments did bring about it's own share of mutations, Super Mutants were produced by a much more sinister means. During the lead up The Great War (the nuclear hellfire that lasted less than a day before the Earth was plunged into darkness), both the United States and the Chinese were looking for something to give them an edge over their counterpart. To date, it's still not known what the Chinese were working on, but the US had pulled on a private contractor named West Tek to develop weapons and armor of superior strength. Along with that, there was much fear that China would employ biological weapons. West Tek begun to research a kind of immunization to the biological weapons, known as the Pan-Immunity Virion Project. While the project did involve some serious genetic restructuring, what was more interesting to the US Military were the side effects. Animal test subjects gained size, muscle mass, and increased brain activity. Seeing a potential way of producing super-human soldiers for the battlefield, the US Military took over the project and renamed it The Forced Evolution Virus, with human testing beginning a short time later (on involuntary military prisoners no less).

However all was not well at the new research facility. While FEV was showing promising results, a lot of members at the facility were unnerved by the whole affiar. Eventually it reached the ears of of the general soldiers stationed, and an open revolt occurred. While Robert Spindel, Colonel in charge of the base forces took the root of guilt and suicide, his second in command, Roger Maxson, took the route of interrogating the science staff for what exactly was happening. After finding out full details of the inhumane actions taken by the science staff, Maxson had them all executed and put out a radio message that the base was seceding from the US Military. Under normal circumstances the US Military probably would have rolled up to quell the revolt, but shortly after Maxson's message went out, the short lived Great War began, the bombs dropped, and the Earth fell silent.

Soon after the bombs dropped, Maxson and his crew left the facility, unable to live around the inhumane events that had occurred. Maxson would later go on to found The Brotherhood of Steel, motivated by his time at the facility.

However, the turmoil that FEV brought did not end there. Not too long after Maxson left the base, it was rediscovered by a group exploring the newly burned world after discovering mutant pests seem to be coming from the base. Richard Grey, one of the leaders of the party happened to fall into one of the FEV vats, mutating him. What emerged was a psychicly enhanced disgusting blob of a creature, who would feed on the living minds of others to further enhance his own abilities. Motivated by the results, Grey started using live test subjects that happened to discover the base to further his own experiments with FEV and mutation.

This is where the Super Mutant race began. The vast majority of subjects were failures in Grey's eyes. After being 'dipped', the would be explores mutated into giant, hutched over, and incredibly strong mutants with the downside that they had the intelligence of a four year old, little more than brutes (and this is assuming they survived the process). In rare cases though, a Super Mutant would flourish. With increased size, intelligence, immune to disease and almost immortal, Grey saw these as the perfection of the human race. The Forced Evolution Virus was the perfect title for the tool Grey, now calling himself The Master, would use to enact what he believed to be his duty.

He had to force humanity to evolve for this new world.

The big problem was that the majority of those dipped were still coming out was unintelligent raging brutes. While the exact reason isn't known, both The Master and those close to him came to the conclusion that those who had been surviving out in the wasteland had somehow been tainted too much for the FEV to have it's desired effects. For a true race of Super-Humans, the master would need untainted subjects who had not had to endure the harshness of the wasteland. And where better to get these subjects, but from vaults. With the average population of 1,000, each one producing a Super Mutant, the forced evolution of humanity was at hand.

However, an explorer from the Vault crushed his plans. As it turned out, while almost immortal, Super Mutants were sterile. They could not reproduce, and the idea of the Super Mutant race died. The Master, in an almost psychotic state, destroyed his facility (and a large portion of Los Angeles) in rage.

Out of the mutants left, some departed towards the East Coast of the US in hope of finding a home. Whether these are the same mutants reported in the Washington D.C. area around Vault 101 is yet to be seen.

In Closing...

Well Vault Dweller, I hope the information contained above serves you well in your adventure. It's okay if you're feeling a bit apprehensive about your adventure outside. I mean, you're living in a state of the art vault, with all the creature comforts that those in the wasteland would kill for. Why would you want to leave?

Don't leave the vault, the world outside isn't very nice place to be.

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