War. War never changes, and yet it changes everything. Ask the Romans and Carthaginians. Ask the Germans and Russians. Ask the Americans and Chinese.
There are those who’ll tell you the Great War started and ended in a matter of hours, but the war didn’t start when the nuclear codes were decrypted. It didn’t start when China invaded Alaska. It didn’t start when Germany invaded Poland, nor did it start when Persia invaded Greece.
It started the first time an ape killed another over a berry bush. It started the first time one cell consumed another in order to propagate.
As nations warred for resources in the middle of the 21st Century, the people opposed to war, those who believed it to be an inhuman force, did not go quietly. On the eve of atomic annihilation, the Northwest Commonwealth reeled from civil unrest. General strikes brought its largest cities to a standstill, and in smaller cities, peaceful demonstrations were met with violence.
Hate groups clashed with socialists, and police with anarchists. A new labor movement stood in stark contrast to rising nationalism, and a long history of renewable sources of energy contributed to the region’s objection to a war over petroleum.
In these last, desperate moments, their voices cried out for humanity to be different, but they were not spared the hellfire. The dream of change was reduced to cinders along with everything else, their pleas for peace silenced by a primal force predating humanity itself.
War never changes, but humanity does. In the wastes of the Pacific Northwest, the survivors of the Great War struggle to keep the flame of hope alive, haunted by the echoes of the world that was. Below, in the Vaults, the memories of those who fought for something better have been erased in favor of a new, more orderly world, kept separate from their true past - until fate intervened.
Now the denizens of one such Vault - Vault 18 - face their worst fears: their Vault is dying, its fusion generators damaged beyond repair and slowly irradiating the inhabitants. With not enough medicine to go around, the decision has been made to unseal the Vault, so that the residents can take their chances above ground.
The situation in Vault 18 has become untenable. After years - decades, really - of disrepair, the fusion generators have malfunctioned, and have been slowly making everybody sick. Some have died. Some have become so irradiated that they've become... something else. With no way to repair the generators, their water supply irreparably contaminated, and their stores of RadAway dwindling, the inhabitants no longer have any choice: the vault must open, and they must try to survive on the surface.
What will they find when the door opens? What remains of the old world? Did anyone survive, or will there only be dust and bones? One way or another, they're about to find out.
Whatever the challenges, the Vault Dwellers will need to find somewhere to settle. They'll need a source of food and water, shelter, and protection. Fortunately, they're well-educated, entrepreneurial, and spirited. They also know they're not far from where a city once stood: Spokan Falls. Hopefully they'll be able to find something in the ruins to help them survive - if something doesn't kill them, first.
Cynic01
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