The Fallout Wasteland

The Broken Coast.
Fall 2296.

With control over the Haida Gwaii archipelago, now formally rechristened as Special Administrative Zone Gimel, the People's Republic was expanding its influence ever further from its homeland of Vancouver Island. More to the point, the establishment of the Gimel Airbase would allow for the People's Liberation Army Air Corps to send scouts off to the Alaskan coastline; it was within the capabilities of Saanich-class airships to do so from Vancouver, but it was significantly cheaper to launch missions from as close a point as possible. Thus, the Zhu De - having been the airship to first reconnoiter the archipelago in the first place - was tasked with cruising northwest, towards Kodiak Island. Assumedly, the island would be abandoned - or perhaps inhabited by people of the First Nations - and could be used as a springboard when Camosun began its forays into Alaska proper.

____________________

Hundreds of miles of endless blue ocean lay beneath the Zhu De as it flew over the Gulf of Alaska - they had left sight of land just a few hours earlier, and it was estimated that they would reach Kodiak Island just as night began to fall or shortly afterwards; in either case, the airship would maintain a stationary position within the clouds until the sun's rays returned at dawn, as it would be useless trying to pick out anything of note in the pitch black of the night and potentially dangerous to boot. After all, if there were hostile forces in Alaska with any form or aircraft, the vessel would be hard-pressed to spot them in the darkness and defend itself. A crewman suddenly shouted, distracting Captain Laborn from his thoughts - the man had seen something drifting in the waves. First ensuring that the airman wasn't simply seeing things, or making a mistaken assumption - after all, sunlight glinting off the waves could throw off even the best intentions - the airship diverted from its previous course a smidge, heading a few degrees further north to investigate.

There, in the waves, sat the rusted hulk of a warship - it was utterly unfathomable as to how a steel-hulled vessel was still afloat after centuries of decay, but there it was. An Montana-class battleship, one of the United States Navy's behemoths; a ship that was already ancient by the time the Sino-American War began, but evidently events in the Pacific had forced it out of drydock and back into active service - too little, too late. The enormous sixteen-inch turrets were still prominently displayed, all pointing off to starboard, as if they had been exchanging fire with another vessel prior to meeting its fate - thankfully, the ship was in such condition that no soul could have possibly lived aboard it in more than two hundred years.

Though an interesting distraction from the current monotony of their mission, salvaging the warship was far outside the bounds of their orders - furthermore, it would be worse than useless for the People's Liberation Navy to send ships of their own into the middle of the Gulf to tow a nearly three hundred year old vessel back to Esquimalt to be brought up to modern standards. The costs involved were beyond insane, and it was almost a certainty that the State Council would never approve such an expense - it was far more likely that the ship would be scrapped for parts, but even then.. it would all be rust and debris, rather than something usable in the factories. Commending the airman for their sharp eye, Captain Laborn ordered the Zhu De back on course for Kodiak Island.

____________________

The following day saw the Saanich-class hovering serenely over Kodiak Island - which, as it turned out, was inhabited; thankfully, by a relatively peaceful group of First Nations peoples calling themselves the Sugpiat. It had taken a great deal of extremely precise and risky maneuvering, but the Zhu De was able to get close enough to the ground that an away team could rappel down and make formal contact with the natives - and the tale they wove was a grim one.

Evidently, Alaska itself was inhabited - that in and of itself was to be expected, as the First Nations had proven themselves remarkably resilient in the wake of the apocalypse. Several dozen groups, primarily descending from the Sugpiat, Unangax, and the Inuits, had spread across the vast wilderness when the United States perished in nuclear fire - but they were not the only peoples to have survived the world's end. Indeed, Americans had survived as well - but not just any Americans. Oh, no - these were so-called patriots, loyal beyond all reason to the United States of America; remnants of the 108th Infantry Battalion, the 11th Airborne Division, the 201st Expeditionary Intelligence Brigade, and the 3d Littoral Combat Team of the US Marines that had survived the apocalypse in Anchorage, and had seen combat against the People's Liberation Army Ground Force's 124th Amphibious Combined Arms Brigade and the 72nd Special Operations Brigade.

But the Americans had committed themselves fully to the xenophobia their ancestors had only just begun growing into - the First Nations were consistently attacked year round, both by ground forces consisting of armored vehicles and infantry, and by aerial strike groups with Vertibirds and power armor. Once the Sugpiat relayed that information, it was quickly determined that the Americans had been the ones behind the attack on Cenxi - they, and they alone, were the only group in the frozen north capable of such, for the indigenous peoples still maintained communication across the endless forests and valleys.

Once the purpose of the Zhu De's mission was revealed, the Sugpiat were more than happy to swear themselves into the People's Republic - anyone that sought to bring an end to the genocidal campaign of the Americans was a friend in their eyes, even before stating that the guiding ideals of Camosun were more than in line with their own beliefs.

(+1,000 people)

American Remains

Austin is a very somber sight in 2296, the unity of the 2280s had been eliminated by the brotherhood. The pet project of the eastern brotherhoods was in full swing, the half body of the goddess of liberty was shrouded, by the looming form of the Crockett, the armored airship that hangs over the hilltop behemoth of sunset granite. The Texas capitol building of before the war had a cult-like following in the wasteland and before the unity took power in central Texas, it was kept mostly in tact. During the years leading up to its liberation, the house chamber roof collapsed and the statue atop the dome was bisected.

Now, the brotherhood has returned, not to fight some horrible mutant threat, but to expand their hold westward and create jumping off points to move further west to gather the pre-war technology that the wasteland states of the west have harbored from them so long. Elder Houston decided that the capitol building, in all of its timeless beauty, would be a perfect place to set their base of operations and to control the wastelands of central Texas.

Firstly, to the south. A decision that came with much deliberation but, under the assumption that the culturally significant dust that once was the Alamo mission and the air force base in what once was San Antonio. Houston set his sights there. He sent the second and third companies to the remains of San macros visa aerial insertion. The show of force of over 100 metal men being dropped from flying machines was enough to fold the small province's leadership and, without a fight, they scoured the shops and inns for anything worth taking.

San Marcos's mayor, a pale, skinny man in a patchy suit with an uncharacteristically clean pocket watch, was infuriated with the neo-feudal deal the knight Sargent informed him of. When the mayor's difficulty was reported to Third company captain Lamar, the knight captain decided to pay a visit to the mayor.

___________________________________________

The painted symbols of Lamar's armor make him stand out from the other knights, he bears wide blue stripes on his pauldrons and knee guards.

"what is the problem Sargent" His voice comes over his armor's speakers and travels through the hot air.

"Captain" he puts a fist to his chest. "the mayor needs convincing, from what we heard he is far too popular among the people to be made an example of"

"you're God damn right I'm too popular, take your fancy metal bucket heads and get out of the town of Musbass." a sharp, whining voice interjects. Lamar looks at the stubborn mayor and at his Sargent.

"my apologies, sir. He is forgetting the protocol for encountering self sustaining and flourishing states. come, lets go to your office where we can discuss a mutual friendship." The power armored knight captain says cordially.

"finally some God damn mother f*cking respect, this way captain, I assume." the lanky man jumps up the steps of what seems to be the town hall. Captain Lamar steps out of his armor, seeing that he wont be able to stand on the lifted floor for fear of falling through it. Lamar still brings in his pistol.

"so... let's get down to business, The brotherhood of steel isn't here to take away your power, we just provide a service... protection, and access to technology. but as you know all services come at a cost" the captain paces as the mayor sits behind a wobbly desk. the building was built after the war and seems to have been functioning as the secular town meeting place for a few generations at least.

"of course... are you about to attempt to justify the same offer that your fellow just extended me. if so: no thank you sir" the mayor hisses.

"now, mister mayor, one cap per citizen with only a few rules about maintaining your own guard is not a steep price." Lamar points a finger.

"I'm afraid, sir, that it is. the average cap revenue is one and a half caps per citizen, a deal like that would mean that our little town here would fall to the shops within, no new buildings, no law, nobody in my employ to get you your caps... it would be a government su*cide mister."

"mayor... mayor... mayor. it really isn't an option. if you want what's best for your people, comply." the captain grabs the back of the chair across from the mayor.

"now now. you don't need to start nothn' I would love to work with you boys but I am completely incapable of doing so, our town fades whether we accept your terms or not" the mayor explains. "you don't want to tax no ghost town do ya'? give us a better deal and we can actually help each other out."

The captain sheathes at this, finally exploding by throwing the chair at a bookshelf in the side of the room. He storms over to a cabinet and throws it onto the ground.

"what do you think you're doing?" the mayor stands up in his seat in time for one of the bottles from his mayoral liquor Cabernet to fly by his head and smash into the window behind him. "no no no not that!" the mayor shouts as the captain tears down the center of a canvas painting. "get back here you no good son of a b*tch" the mayor scrambles to block the captain from returning to his troops outside.

"consider your first payment complete, we will return in a month and hope for your sake, y'all're ready." the captain pushes his way past and leaves.

SHINING STAR OF PARTY CENTER
(i) Propaganda apparatus of the CPV

The Masters of this Land Say!

The Liberated Zone is a bastion of progression and education in an otherwise bleak and hopeless world! Yesterday, the scientists of Juche have achieved an immortal feat of a breakthrough in mechanical research! Their tireless study of understanding the technology of the decadent imperialists and utilizing it for good have opened the prospects of the revolution for a highly heavily industrialized future, leading the Western United States in great and glorious production and furnishing further a strong technologically advanced military! The scientists are being awarded the highest honors and their names will be sung graciously in the annuls of this new era's prosperous history!

Industry 6 researched

People's Industrial Revolution soars to new heights!

Major materials processing facilities and production centers have finished construction across the Liberated Zone! Two processing facilities in Medford, the Medford Revolutionary Plant No. 1, the Brookings Revolutionary Plant No. 1 have both immediately commenced production, working side-by-side with the famed Klamath Falls Plant No. 1 who had taken the lead in locomotive and arms production! The great and peerless merits of Songun Policy are paying off as the Revolution rapidly begins to arm and train new revolutionaries- for the purpose of raising a well-respected and powerful People's Army to carry out the Liberation of the Pacific!

--

Locomotive production ceases. The two industrial slots that were taken up by them shifts to production of M777 howitzers (1-9kg).
4 industrial slots dedicated to production of M777 howitzers (1-9kg)
1 industrial slot dedicated to production of radios and small arms ammunition
1 industrial slot dedicated to production of large arms ammunition
1 industrial slot dedicated to production of light vehicles (capable of towing the howitzers)
1 industrial slot dedicated to production of light weapons (.50 caliber HMG's)

Agriculture reforms, Supreme Revolutionary Headquarters outlines bold new development project

To bolster the revolution, many of the Liberated Zone's soldiers have volunteered to enlist in a shock brigade to develop the agricultural front, generating the income necessary for a bold new project. Klamath Falls District has been chosen for a fuel refinery, to generate the resources necessary to motorize the People's Vanguard and achieve the revolutionary target objectives.

15 pops re-assigned to substinence farming
Landfill commences construction in Brookings District
High Pressure Fuel Refiner commences construction in Klamath Falls District

Oregon Theater
6 | Newport

North Bend and Coos Bay, as soon as it was properly subjugated and its citizens mid re-education, was left with its garrison. The advance elements of the People's Vanguard were given the order to continue north along the Oregon Coast. Three companies made the trek, accompanied by nothing but the occasional wary trader and the constant crashing of waves along beachside dunes. The deep Elliot State Forest served as a backdrop, pinning them between a rock and a hard place. The villages of Saunders Lake, Hauser, the town of Lakeside, the village of Winchester Bay, were recovered from a state of anarchy. The town of Reedsport, long dependent on fishing and maritime trade, hastily accepted surrender upon discovering the Vanguard's forces upon them.

However, the remnants of those who fled Coors Bay, and the many people that they warned, would not these advances go unpunished.

-

TAHKENITCH CREEK BRIDGE,
5:30 PM

"Hold your fire." A gruff man, the self-proclaimed "Captain Bates", muttered to his sixteen year old son in a hushed voice. He'd assumed control of the hastily put together militia that now more resembled a desperate and angry mob of Coors Bay dissidents, plus everyone they'd managed to convince to leave from all those anarchic settlements that the communists had just seized for themselves. Sixty men and boys had secreted themselves in the dense forests surrounding the crossing. They brandished hunting rifles, and one light machine gun between them. The scouts on Weed Island had just sent the signal-- incoming. Captain Bates leaned onto the log overlooking the road with a hand on his son's shoulder. His own hand clutched a M1911 pistol.

"Let the first group pass." He warned, highlighting a dark truth with disdain and pity brimming in his voice. "They put the white people at the front." Bates knew it served two purposes. Deceptive manipulation when it came time to negotiate with captured settlements if things went according to plan? If things didn't? The American-born would be used as human shields for the Koreans that would swoop in and crush the resistance. He was no history man, but he knew that the country formerly known as North Korea had a deep and vitriolic hatred for America. They must get some kind of sick pleasure now that the tables are turned.

Familiar figures began to emerge, and just as the father had predicted-- the whitest-looking of the bunch arrived first, toting supplies and quietly conversing among themselves. The occasional political commissar and military officer surveyed from horseback near the rear. And right according to plan, once they were past, a mostly Korean-American and Korean detachment marched behind them, completely silent. Bates' son parted his lips. He could see the hatred brimming in their eyes. They were descendants of guerrillas that never stopped fighting until they defeated the descendants of the National Guard they'd been evading for decades. It seemed the fighting spirit never left them.

They didn't wait for the third company to pass. Another signal from Weed Island. Trouble. The third company was fanning out through the forest, searching for ambushers. Ambushers like them. They didn't have time, and needed to act quick. Captain Bates took a deep breath. The barrel of his rifle swiveled to an officer. His finger squeezed on the trigger, then pulled. The shot crackled throughout the forest. The bullet struck the upper part of the officer's shoulder, but he still fell off the horse in a doozy. The soldiers on the narrow road whipped their heads around and began to scatter into the trees, where the ambushers waited to receive them with their rifles. A dozen CPV soldiers fell, but the return fire was immense. Bates threw his son off the log, yelling at him to run north. The militia, despite having a geographical advantage, knew that they were outnumbered, and CPV soldiers from the third company already in the woods were hot on their tails.

The militia began an orderly retreat northeast. Bates' quest for revenge meant that they'd need to fight through the American CPV soldiers that they'd let pass.

-

The Vanguard had fought the militiamen in a rabid pursuit straight up to Siltcoos Lake and the abandoned vacation settlement of Dunes City. During this pursuit, many of the enemy had gotten lost in the dense forests with no way to pursue them. The CPV would cut their losses and continue due north, leaving the likely-unprepared freedom fighters to the bears in the rapidly-darkening sky. Of the 60 that had ambushed them, they'd manage to kill 26 and capture 4. When they reached the Siuslaw River, which divided them from the small city of Florence, they found the bridge barricaded, a company's worth of militia waiting for them. Gunfire was exchanged at around eight thirty at night, and lasted until neither side could see each other across the river. Fearing a surprise attack, the CPV decided not to make camp in the abandoned settlement of Glenada, but to pull south to Dunes City- leaving 50 men to march eat to find an alleged train bridge as a potential crossing point. They found it, and began a march due east, capturing many small river settlements in the dead of night including the town of Mapleton and the village of Swisshome, plus many other hamlets with only a few families each that made their living off of hunting, fishing, and maritime trade.

Morning came, and the CPV assaulted the bridge barricade a second time, this time employing a .50 caliber heavy machine gun. Four platoons also crossed the train bridge discreetly, and launched a surprise attack on the city's eastern flank, clearing space for their comrades to cross. The town surrendered, but its militia also retreated north, presumably to join with the remnants of Captain Bates' group-- the ones that hadn't gotten lost in the forest. In the town, a historical museum with an armored car on display was recovered, plus a coast guard base and a national armory that had been half-looted to arm the militia. Civilians were promised amnesty on conditions that they were disarmed, which they complied with at gunpoint.

The CPV's march north was silent on condition of the receding dissidents' being several hours ahead of them. They saw no action, passing abandoned beach settlements that had long since been looted for anything useful, until they crossed the bridge into the town of Newport. Despite having a national guard armory and coast guard station, the town's residents were not united enough to pose any credible threat to the CPV's forces despite their raw size. Those who heeded the warning of the fleeing Coors Bay group looted the national guard armory and left the majority with simple weapons. The subjugation of the town was easy, and only a few shots were fired. Again, a small detachment went east, securing river settlements, the town of Toledo, and the farming settlement of Siletz-- who, according to a covertly socialist informant, had all donated food and medical resources to the dissenters.

They would all be punished later. The CPV needed to maintain a veil of "amnesty" to not bog down their chase of the credible threat to their expansion.

The CPV would advance as far north as Depoe Bay, securing another coast guard station and finding the small town completely unaware of their existence, actually welcoming the Revolution hoping that it would fix their chronic resource shortage problem. Their ignorance cold only mean one thing. The opposition forces did not retreat north after Newport. They followed the highway west through Toledo and Siletz. Towards major cities like Eugene and Salem. Towards proper resources and manpower.

This "resistance" could not be allowed to fester. If it were, it would prove tragic to the Revolution's cause in Oregon.

-

Newport District seized.

+ 3 USCG 47-ft motor lifeboats (1 per captured station)
+ 1 defender-class RBS response boat (USCG)
+ 1 Ferret scout car/armored car (Oregon Coast Military Museum)

+ 1 Boys Anti-Tank Rifle, with ammunition (Oregon Coast Military Museum)
+ 1 Panzerfaust (see above)

+ 2,500 people

+ 45 RP

American remains PT2(San Antonio)

San Antonio, despite its place in the south Texas wasteland, was the succulent American cloud that was part of a dessert coalition of trading cities, San Antonio being the largest north of the border. The locals lovingly call it Riverdump, during the war the canals were destroyed beyond repair and nobody bothered to fix them. The main settlement itself is set on the site of an air-burst atom bomb that malfunctioned and buried itself deep in the ground before creating a huge crater in the earth that has since become the reservoir for the town. You're probably what generations of wasteland travelers have asked: is the Alamo still there? The answer; complicated, the mission itself, 400-500 year old brick walls are nowhere to be found effectively wiped off the surface of the earth. The spirit still lives on, just in a misinterpreted sense. Instead of the heroic tale of Texas, they just use the phrase "remember the Alamo" in a sort of hailing way, the same way and actor would say "break a leg."

After news of the brotherhood in Austin moving down into San Marcos, there was a slight panic in the people. However, the owners of the biggest trade guilds weren't worried, they knew they had enough money to pay off the brotherhood, it wasn't favorable but they made enough profit to endure. little did they know, the brotherhood wouldn't be so keen to the large powerful organizations that would be under them with the means to possibly cast them off.

Head paladin William Travis was finished imposing the new law of the land, imprisoning those who didn't, and recruiting across the wastes to either side of the interstate-35 they had sent back to Austin, many people that wish to serve with the brotherhood or be taught the way. The Virtibirds from first, second, and third companies all come together, in an assault formation towards the south, towards Riverdump.

The strategy employed would be similar to a SWAT raid, the armored troops would clear, house to house, looking for particular targets then drag them out or kill them, stomping any resistance on their way. citizens will be left alone and informed by squires of what just happened and be compensated by a paper claim of damages, redeemable after peacekeeping and technology preservation efforts have ended in the area. The brotherhood knew it would be difficult to convert the population but they were ensured that Elder Houston had it under control.

After days of clearing buildings methodically, Riverdump was under control of the brotherhood. The authority of brotherhood leaders compared to the loose confederation of guilds was a relief to many of the middle class families, the guild-masters never promised a lot of protection for those willing to settle down.