Sunday, November 30, 2008

Radio of the Wasteland












Even in the face of hopelessness the voice of the people apparently won't be stifled. So is the case with the two main surviving radio stations out here in the Capitol Wasteland, Enclave Radio and Galaxy News Radio.

I spent some time with a precision tool poking around and getting the recording function on my Pip-Boy 3000 to work, so consider this a special treat. I've recorded a little from both stations and spent a long, cold night out here in the wastes editing together a little audio featurette profiling both stations. If nothing else, it'll give you a chance to hear the words of John Henry Eden (The self-proclaimed president of the United States) and Three Dog (The self-proclaimed "Lord and master over the finest radio station to grace the Wastes.")

Sunday, November 23, 2008

About the Vaults









On to a little something about the Vaults, since that's where it all started for me. Well, so I thought, at least, but that's another story.

Back when it looked like things were getting ready to go to Hell, the government commissioned a group named Vault-Tec to develop an underground shelter designed to house 1000 people for 10 years following a nuclear exchange. The Vaults had all the major amenities, as well as the supplies necessary to start up a small settlement once the radiation had cleared up.

That was the plan, in any case. Due to the usual human error many vaults were over-or-under-supplied, and as a result not all vaults survived the attack. At least one Vault is known to have suffered a direct hit, with catastrophic results for those inside.

Officially, the Vaults were nuclear shelters designed to protect the American population from nuclear holocaust. However, with a population of almost 400 million by 2077, the U.S. would need nearly 400,000 Vaults, while Vault-Tec was commissioned to build only 122 such Vaults.

The real reason for the existence of these Vaults was to study preselected segments of the population to see how they react to the stresses of isolationism and how successfully they re-colonize Earth after the Vault opened. It's disturbing to think that even in the face of a nuclear holocaust the people in charge were more interested in using the rest of us as their lab rats rather than trying to protect us from their stupidity.

How do I know this? A lot of things survived the war, and the old United States shadow government, known now as the Enclave, liked to keep tidy records of their projects and plans. You'll be hearing about them in the next installment.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

First, a Little History.












War. War never changes.

The end of the world happened pretty much as people expected it might: Too many people, not enough resources. Just over two hundred years ago, international tensions that had been simmering since the end of World War II started to boil over in a series of events that came to be known as the Resource Wars.

On October 23, 2077, it all came crashing down as the United States and China decided enough was enough. World War II lasted six years. World War III lasted just under an hour. It’s not known who pushed the button first, and frankly, it doesn’t matter. That was over 200 years ago. Obviously, it wasn’t the end. Life has a funny way of going on, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. You’ll be hearing more about that soon, as if the very fact of your reading this didn’t make it clear.

Oh yeah, I’m Jake Chambers, and I’ll be your humble narrator for this story. For the first 18 years of my life the only world I knew was a protective vault housed in the side of a mountain. Just a few weeks ago my world came crashing down around me as well. I’ll be explaining that later on.

Right now, I have to keep moving. It’s late, and I hear the howling of deathclaws.