Fallout: Southern Hospitality

by CourierUlysses

Johnathan was just another young man in a Vault. He was happy there, safe from the remnants of the Great War. When the barrier of steel and electricity comes falling down around him, he's cast out into the nuclear remains of the Southern United States. What starts as a desire to survive quickly flourishes into an addiction for history and putting together the pieces of the past.

1. Introduction

War. War never changes.

Everyone knows the story of the day atomic fire fell from the sky. Everyone's heard of it, whether they care to remember or not. Everyone feels its effects. Some places were condemned worse than others. The important places—capitals of countries, important resource farms, and military bases—were struck much harder than their neighboring communities.

In the years before the bombs fell, Vault-Tec designed and installed massive underground bunkers to protect the luckiest of the citizens of the United States. Some key locations were blessed with multiple Vaults, while others were left wanting for even one. Washington D.C. and its surrounding areas had a dozen known Vaults scattered about.

In the southern reaches of the United States, the acres of farmland and crumbling cities were deemed much less important than much of the rest of the country. The states of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi were only left with three Vaults to share between the hundreds of thousands of citizens. If you weren't one of the lucky several thousand chosen, you were forgotten without remorse.

Those who were lucky enough to be chosen by Vault-Tec were spared the destruction and radiation when the bombs fell on that fateful day. On October 23, 2077, the world was drowned in nuclear fire and radiation. The year is 2245, and the screams of war have long since stopped.

But those screams still echo. Because war never changes.