GURPS: FALLOUT - Fallout GURPS - Free

2069
Canada begins to feel the pressure from the United States military as the US
draws upon Canadian resources for the war effort. Vast stretches of
timberland are destroyed, and other resources in Canada are stretched to
the breaking point. Many Americans refer to Canada as Little America, and
Canadian protests are unheard.
2072
The United States' increasing demand for Canadian resources causes
protests and riots in several Canadian cities. An attempted sabotage of the
Alaskan pipeline is all the military needs as an excuse to begin its
annexation of Canada... which in fact, had already begun in 2067.
Completed B.O.M.B. missiles are sent to different space centers around the
U.S. so they can be carried into space and installed into the B.O.M.B.
satellites. The process is slow, but it is being carried out fairly regularly.
2073
September 15: As China becomes increasingly aggressive with their use of
biological weapons, the United States government felt that a
countermeasure was needed. The Pan-Immunity Virion Project (PVP) is
officially formed and plans are made to begin experiments at the West Tek
research facility in Southern California.
2074
Negotiations between the US and other world powers come to a dramatic
end, with the President walking out of oil talks with the other world powers.
After a much heated debate, the President stormed out of the meeting and
declared that the last known supply of petroleum will be used exclusively by
the US and the US will not sell or trade any oil to outside parties.
Contrary to their claims of seeking only to retake Alaska from the Reds,
American Power Armor units, infantry, and mechanized divisions are
deployed to China, but they become bogged down on the mainland, putting
a further drain on American resources and supply lines.
Note: This information comes from Chris Avellone's Fallout Bible timeline.
According to the Sierra Depot GNN Transcript holodisk, which Avellone
discards as non-canon, this happened on October 22, 2077.
2075
February 14: Canada, after being almost entirely taken over by US troops,
finally agrees to be annexed by the U.S. The annexation is finalized almost a
year later.
2076
January: The United States annexation of Canada is complete. Canadian
protesters and rioters are shot on sight, and the Alaskan Pipeline swarms
with American military units. Pictures of atrocities make their way to the
United States, causing further unrest and protests.
March 30: The U.S. President ordered the Pacific Fleet to the Poseidon
deep sea oil derrick located at a secret location out in the Pacific.
June: Power Armor prototype completed, resulting in model T51-b Power
Armor. This is the pinnacle of Power Armor technology before the Great War.
Many of these units are sent to China, and they begin to carve a swath
through the Chinese forces. The Chinese resources are strained to the
breaking point, and the supply lines from the nations China has annexed
begin to break down.
2077
January 10: Alaska is reclaimed, and the Anchorage Front Line is again held
by the Americans.
January 22: The first domestic use of Power Armor within the United States
for crowd and quarantine control. Units originally serving in China and the
Anchorage Front Line find themselves fighting Americans at home. Food riots
increase, and many civilians are killed. Several soldiers defect from the
military both in Canada and the United States. They are captured, and are
sent to military prisons.
March: Prepared for a nuclear or biological attack from China, the president
and the Enclave retreats to remote sections around the globe and make
contingency plans for continuing the war.
October 23: Great War: Bombs are launched; who struck first is unknown...
and it is not even known if the bombs came from China or America. Air raid
sirens sound, but very few people go into vaults, thinking it is a false alarm.
The Vaults are sealed.
Overview
Chapter 2: The Brotherhood of
Steel
The ranks of the BOS is generally recognized as being composed of the
best and the brightest, which means the BOS is a relatively small
organization, at least compared to the New California Republic. They
make up for this with their frightening arsenal of pre-war and post-war
technology: They have laser weapons, Power Armors, surgical
enhancements, combat implants, and the Brotherhood Paladins who
have the ability to erase an entire town from a map without a scratch. The
vast majority of BOS members are born in the Brotherhood - they very
rarely accept outsiders into their ranks. Those born in the Brotherhood
that want to be neither Scribes, Knights nor Paladins are free to leave -
the Brotherhood does not believe in forcing anyone to serve them against
their will.
While they're generally not hostile to others without a good reason, unlike
the legendary chivalrous knights (and very much like historical military
and religious orders like the Knights Templar), members of the
Brotherhood are not interested in justice for the obviously weaker and
less fortunate around them. They largely focus on keeping their secrecy
and preserving and developing technology, which, in many cases, they
put above human life. Their motives are often unclear, and Brotherhood
members are not people to be trifled with. It is safe to say, however, that if
a group of Brotherhood knights appears to be helping some less fortunate
people, their motives are not altruistic.
The Brotherhood doesn't like to share their choicest technological bits,
despite the obvious benefits their technology could bring to the
wasteland. It's commonly accepted within the Brotherhood that the
people of the wasteland are not responsible enough to use (and maintain)
all of the technology the BOS has at their disposal. They are known for
trading some of their technologies with frontier communities and NCR
states in exchange for food and other resources, but they keep the more
sensitive technologies to themselves.
While they have great reverence for technology, most of the Brotherhood
members have little regard for non-technical fields of knowledge (and
even for non-combat technology). Even most of the Scribes don't care
about history, and some Initiates don't even know who Roger Maxson, the
founder of the Brotherhood, was.
The Brotherhood's attitude towards mutants ranges from dislike (e.g. in
the case of ghouls) to outright hostility (in case of super mutants). Early
contact with the Master's super mutants was mostly hostile, and the BOS
helped drive the majority of the mutant armies away from California.
While after the Master's defeat many super mutants settled peacefully
among humans, the hostility between the two groups didn't disappear.
BOS contact with ghouls has been limited, but negative - it's difficult for
the BOS to respect a stumbling crew of emaciated scavengers that tend
to dismantle or FUBAR old world technology. BOS' anger grew even
further when various salvaging operations began in the Glow, a location
which the BOS came to regard highly both for their fallen comrades and
the Pre-War technology there, with Dayglow ghouls at the forefront. Most
BOS members see ghouls as filthy scavengers.
West Coast
The headquarters of the Brotherhood is the Lost Hills bunker, the seat of
the BOS High Elder and the ruling council, and the place where the
organization was founded. It is also the center of their research and
military activities. However, by 2242, the BOS is spread across the
wastes of California in small bunkers and installations hidden from the
eyes of common folk, and finding them all and wiping them out would be
a difficult and dangerous task. Their installations include bunkers in the
Den, San Francisco and Shady Sands (capital of NCR). All Brotherhood
outposts are formally subject to the Lost Hills authorities, even if they
sometimes tend to act independently, especially if they're located far from
California and contact with the headquarters is rare. The Lost Hills bunker
is surrounded by the town of Maxson, which, while named after the
founder of the Brotherhood, is officially outside BOS rule and is a member
of the NCR.
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