Jump 057: Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel

Jump 057: Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel

Location: Great Bend, Kansas, 2197
Age: 22
Identity: Drop-In, Human
Drawbacks: [+300] Fallout History Toggle, No Music, Racist

[Free]      Fast Metabolism
[100/1300]  Steady Arm
[300/1300]  Tech Wizard
[Free]      Kama Sutra Master
[Free]      Nightvision
[400/1300]  Artful Dodger
[500/1300]  Mutate!: Tough Hide
[700/1300]  Toughness
[1000/1300] Mr. Fix It
[1300/1300] Look On My Works Ye Mighty And Despair
[1300/1700] Item Stipend (+400)
[1400/1700] Dosh (x2)
[Free]      Pistol, .45
[Free]      Hunting Rifle
[1700/1700] Hellion

The last time that the Enclave had heard from the Archer, the year was 2171.

After spending five years with them, only leaving when the vice-president assassinated the president, he left to roam the wasteland with the promise that he would one day contact them again. This, of course, was assumed by many to be either a polite fiction or a promise impossible to be kept, but twenty-six years later, a communications console clicked on with an encrypted video communication.

The Archer, looking as hale and hearty as he ever had.

"Gentlemen! I have found America's salvation. It took me a little longer than I expected, but here I am. Behold! The Cheyenne Mountain complex, or as the previous poor souls that occupied this place called it before their untimely demise, Vault Zero."
>"Sir, you're in Colorado? Wait, how are you even reaching us from there?"
"Equipment in Cheyenne Mountain is sufficient, with a little modification, to reach anyone in North America. Regardless, I woke up after a hangover in some no-name town in Kansas. Bunch of robots came in and started killing people, so I figured I'd kill them right back. Ended up that they were based out of Cheyenne Mountain. Turns out that there was an overglorified robobrain running the defense grid and trying to reclaim the wasteland by basically killing everyone."
>"Currently alerting command. You neutralized it, sir, or do you need reinforcements? We're pretty thin on manpower, but..."
"No, I took care of it. Can't leave that thing rampaging across the midwest after all. Apparently it only woke up last year, so it didn't hesitate to go on its little killing spree. On the plus side, I've got a full map of the vault network for the president and joint chiefs, override access codes for all of them, and a few useful pre-war prototypes besides. The robots won't be too useful though - they're either a kludge of pre-war hardware or things that were obsoleted by assaultrons, like the C-27's. Only reason they actually got anywhere is because nobody out here has any organization or heavy guns. Got a fully operational XF-91 Hellion, though. May not be supersonic, but it's still a VTOL with a range of about two thousand nautical miles. And the plans to build more. Facility's still intact enough to function if we get a VAX system installed here."
>"That's... that's great! I-- oh! Hold the line for the president, sir."
"Excellent... Mister President! Ah, so you got the vote? It's good to see you, regardless. Listen, I've managed to take Cheyenne Mountain, and what's more, I think you're going to be very interested in

And so I informed the president and joint chiefs of everything that had transpired. Great Bend was kept from being overrun by robots, and after a fighting advance across Kansas and Colorado, I dealt with the robots overrunning Newton, Scott City, Canyon City, and Buena Vista before hitting the Cheyenne Mountain complex itself... and hitting it HARD. Things that the Calculator failed to predict included my commandeering the Hellion and using it to strafe the complex to destroy its external defenses, before going in with a frontal assault and shutting it down.

Cheyenne Mountain was easily reinforced with automated defenses and eventually a skeleton crew was brought in to manage it. And in time, a certain ZAX system was moved in and installed. The new Director that was put in place was highly successful in coordinating between different vaults as communications were reestablished, quietly stepping down ongoing experiments and restoring normalcy. A daunting task for any man, but then, Director John Henry Eden was no mere man.

The Archer gave the Enclave technology on a silver platter, and giving them high speed long range transport ensured they could actually begin laying the groundwork for the reclamation of the wasteland. More importantly, it ensured they had access to the Nursery, a fail-safe ecological reserve from before the war in the remains of Black Canyon National Park. The pre-war ecological miracle, coupled with hydroponics and some of the gifts the Archer had given them, would ensure they had viable crops to spread through the wasteland. After all, what he had jokingly called 'the root of good health' had made tea surprisingly popular among the Enclave. To say nothing of herb cigars. With hydroponics, it didn't take long for those cigars to displace tobacco cigarettes in popularity - one of the early hallmarks of an Enclave agent back, before the Federal consolidation, was having a pack of San Francisco Sunlights in their pocket, the Enclave's very own brand. Though it also made for a good trade medium alongside pure water.

Of course, as a result, the Calculator's forces didn't get the attention of the Midwestern Brotherhood because they'd been destroyed too soon. The Brotherhood of Steel, or at least the chapter based near Chicago and currently at war with a pocket army of super mutants, never had reason to look further afield - after they eradicated the super mutant threat to the midwest, they retreated to lick their wounds and consolidate their holdings.

At least, for nearly a half century.

By the time they looked at expansion again, Caesar's Legion had formed and their scouts were practically knocking on their door - but more importantly, the Enclave was happy to use primitive stealth technology to bomb the Brotherhood's bases with near-impunity. (That is, painting the undersides of their F-91's sky-blue and flying them high above - it's more effective than one might imagine.) The Enclave was very effective in wiping out the Brotherhood in each attack and leaving without a trace, leaving the attacks blamed on the Legion's scouts being far more aggressive and well-armed than they truly were.

In 2254 the Brotherhood evacuated the midwest, rebuilding their zeppelins and leaving for the eastern coast. And Caesar's Legion continued to acquire territory to the west, only with a few of the Brotherhood's scribes captured as the rest moved their base of operations.