January 1st, 2254
War, it really never changes. In the backwind times of ancient human civilization, war was used as a mean to conquer territories and riches for an empire. War has been used to destroy or build entire civilizations on the backs of youthful spirits, building their own heaven using death as the bricks for the foundation of their eternal societies, or so they thought. War has been used to settle old scores of wounds inflicted by generations long past. War has been used in times of desperation, it has been used for greed, hell it has probably has been used for even the most carnal of human pleasures.
On top of the reasons for the war, the technology made for it always maintains the same purpose. From something as simple as a pointed spear to which to ram through your enemies, to a sword where you can slash through your opponents with a decisive swing, to the arrows which can fly through the air at speeds unanticipated, to the bullets of a rifle, the airplanes of the sky, the motorized cavalry of artillery. All serving a singular purpose, but taking multiple forms. All for the purpose of killing and destroying your opponent.
I have seen the effects of such conflicts. Recalled pictures of the conflicts from the photos grouped inside the pages of history. Images of the immense suffering of individuals starving in the streets because the government directed all surplus food to be directed towards the war effort, audio and video recordings of the experiences of troopers on the battlefield attempting to simply survive to return to their families after being conscripted into a fight not of their making. War for all purposes of description, was hell.
Yet, if the experience of war was so harrowing, then why does humanity seem to indulge in it for over most of its own natural history? Centuries of wars being fought across vast civilizations and places, with only decades of peace to break the stalemates. Perhaps these are questions I may never know the answer to, nor may anyone else.
The New California Republic, is no longer the power of the wastes being replaced by a more authoritarian Pacific Confederation. Ever since the Brotherhood-NCR war ended in a decisive victory for the Brotherhood, the Mojave has been handling mass emigration from the old NCR lands of people trying to flee from the new regime. Women, children, and men of all ages and backgrounds who refused to live in fear packed up what little they had for hopes of some kind of a life in which they could be left alone and be afforded basic safety.
I guess, that this was one of my reasons for why I decided to expand more into the northern regions of the old state. The Great Basin Campaign, I called it based on the fact that north of the Mojave was the Great Basin Desert, which covered the entire northern portion of Nevada and thus seemed appropriate. The operation comprised of four hundred soldiers, and proceeded to secure the northern towns in Nevada both pre-war and post-war. I had heard from scouting reports, and talk among the merchants conducting trade around Vegas that there were quite a few towns such as Vault City, New Reno, Gecko, etc that would be of value to add into our sphere and they became one of the focus points of the campaign.
The campaign although meant to seize territory, also had some major strategic objectives for me to accomplish. One, I wanted to show the wasteland that the United Settlements was capable of launching offensive operations and thus could be seen as a powerful force to the average wastelander. Two, I was unaware at the time and still am in all honesty of what exactly this self-declared President Colts ambitions are, and I knew that if I didn't begin expansion from around Vegas I wouldn't have a chance if his intentions were one of conquest for an empire. And three, having the entire state of Nevada under a single banner accomplishes one small feat in our road to restoring the United States and it was best to gain the territory early when it wasn't really defended, then to try and do it at a later date.
Overall, I would say after reading the reports from the conflict that it was very successful. Casualty reports only mention that in total forty troopers succumbed to death at the conclusion of the campaign with an additional thirty injured. Seventy percent of those injuries came from the Siege of New Reno, where the mobsters lead by the Mordino Family attempted to outlast the United Settlements Army by barricading buildings inside New Reno and placing men with guns in strategic positions, along with fortifying parts of the perimeter of the city with whatever they could find. My army, taking in the situation decided against a frontal assault insisting that it would be a waste of resources and manpower and instead opted to enforce a blockade of the city from the outside world.
Trade caravans were re-routed away from the city much to the annoyance of the companies who controlled them, and failed to regain any compensation for monetary losses. Travelers were ordered to move along from the city, and all shipments of food were completely stopped. This had the unintended effect on nearby communities who relied on trade with Reno to petition the soldiers to allow them to continue trade with the city, but to no avail. The Siege of New Reno lasted a total of two months, where towards the end in a sign of desperation the Mordinos launched a major assault with mob loyalists against army positions. Initially it looked as if the Mordinos had caught the blockade forces by surprise, attacking in the middle of the night with sub-machine guns, small arms, and some low-tech rifles however their luck soon began to ran out once the Stormtroopers began to regain control of the situation and organize a proper defense.
In the end, it was a slaughter. The Mordinos had overplayed their hand, and although they did do some damage initially, it was repulsed by the more experienced veterans of the United Settlements who had been serving since before the oil rigs destruction. Both raising morale of the troops, and completely crushed the spirit and will of the city of New Reno to continue their defenses. With the food supplies dwindling quickly due to the population, and a lack of options for a second attack when the first proved fatal, the remaining families surrendered the city entirely to the United Settlements. When I received word of the surrender, I admit that I jumped with joy. It was the first major victory of my army, and I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride for its accomplishment, but knew the work was far from done.
The question on everyone's mind at this point, was what to do with the city now that it had been captured. Usually whenever a settlement had been captured, we moved quickly to establish a local government and ensure elections became common place for the position of mayor. However, this was only done in small towns captured due to their low risk of potential revolt against the United Settlements and New Reno still maintained its pre-war status of territory due to it being spared from the nuclear war, and thus was one of the biggest towns in post-war America. Couple that on with the fact that the city had never really had organized leadership since the Great War, being run by a group of self-proclaimed mafiosos who kept the city divided into their own sections.
On top of the fact that the city had not been run by an organized structure of governance for a while, each group had their own unique ideas for what they wanted the city to be and they often conflicted with each other in one way or another. I knew that if we allowed for a local government to form so early, it would quickly descend into civil war as the remaining families would put up a candidate and each would be willing to win the election at any cost, and we had no faith at the time that the new mayor of New Reno coming from one of these families would be very friendly to efforts by the United Settlements to restore the principles of law and order into the region and thus diminish their power. And thus, it was decided that military rule of the area would be implemented and maintained until conditions were more favorable.
One of the more interesting parts of the New Reno, was the military tribunal of the leader of the Mordino families Big Jesus Mordino. Now, we knew that all the families were involved in the defense of New Reno, but we know that the biggest contributor was Mordino himself and we also knew from interrogations of captured prisoners of war that it was Mordino who ordered the assault on the army blockades. Not only was Mordino the biggest advocate of the defense of the town, but he was also one of the biggest crime lords in the land with his influence even extending into some of the New California towns with his Jet sells and thus trying him under a military tribunal and then his execution would send a chilling message to the remaining crime lords of New Reno, and to surrounding communities in that the United Settlements would be holding anyone accountable if they stand in the way of their vision.
I guess one could argue with this mentality, that we're in a way no better then the New California Republic in how they annexed settlement after settlement even if they had to resort to unethical tactics, but in this case the ends justify the means in my view and it's temporary. When the United States is re-established in all its glory there will be clean drinking water, safety and security to all citizens of the republic, and opportunity. All the things that the New California Republic can't guarantee, nor had the expertise or knowledge of how to do. And that is why they no longer exist. They had grown to not see the bigger picture. Even the Brotherhood for its isolation inside of its bunkers, at least wanted to spread their influence and power over different regions of the United States and not concentrate in a single area, something I can admire. And when they arrived from out east, the NCR was wholly unprepared for the enemy that they were to face and everything they had been working for was destroyed and replaced by something far more authoritarian.
Back to the campaign in the Great Basin regions though, once New Reno had fallen to my army the settlements of Gecko and Vault City weren't far off and they both decided to join on favorable terms which was graciously accepted. Vault City was allowed to keep their system of indentured servitude, which although distasteful, did concede quite a lot of technical information from their databases and abolished its discriminatory policies of citizenship in order for people to enter the town which I'll take as a victory. Gecko was quick to fall too, with the Ghouls only request was for the government to recognize their rights as equal to that of any other citizen and that anti-discrimination would be a goal of the government which I was all too happy to oblige.
Truth be told, I never really agreed with the Enclave narrative of "Muties on the mainland," or sub-human bullshit. I can see value even in the most deformed individual in the wasteland, and to declare them inferior on the grounds of their unique attributes of being a Ghoul or Super Mutant or whatever would just be a waste of a valuable resource in my opinion and we must not be wasteful of our resources in these trying times.
Damn, I keep rambling on about other things and I never finish my New Reno story. After New Reno was now under the direction and administration of the military, it was quick to begin appointment of a City Marshal in order to begin building up the local town police force. This would normally have also be done under the direction of a mayor, but it was feared that if we allowed that to develop the police force of the town would be compromised by corruption and would serve as a hit squad for the family in power at any given time, which was undesirable. We sent some of our Marshals into the town to take over some basic duties of policing and begin to train and grow a small force instilled with core values of patriotism, duty, and selflessness. With the training of the police force completing within the coming months, the military appoints an official sheriff of New Reno who takes over the functions of local law enforcement away from the military, leaving them to pull out troops over time as the sheriff becomes the brunt of enforcement action to lend credibility to the new police force.
The Salvatores Family was pissed with these new developments, seeing this new force as a threat to its economic interests and with an influx of old Mordino family members attempted to thwart the forces attempts at policing the town. The Salvatores attempted to assassinate the sheriff by planting an explosive device in his office on a timed detonation. The sheriff at the time and still the current sheriff of New Reno today was a man called Gill Tatum. Now Mr. Tatum was well aware of the Salvatores plot to assassinate him in advance, thanks to his connections with some of his well implanted moles in the Salvatores family. After the death of Big Jesus Mordino, the influence of their family waned to the point that Mr. Tatum was able to destroy the drug operations of the family by launching a raid on the ranch where Jet was being produced and in turn, destroying the financial operations of the Mordino family and soon after the destruction of the drug labs in Reno, lead a posse into the Desparado bar to arrest the remaining leaders of the crime family.
The low-ranking members of the organization, now no longer had ties to the family and Tatum used this to his advantage. Knowing that these members would not wish to leave the vice den that is New Reno, and knowing that they had no intention of going straight, he deduced that they would either join the Bishops or Salvatores. The Bishops because they still pull the strings on some local businesses here in town and keep their operations under wraps pretty well, or the Salvatores who was the most powerful yet not the size of the Bishops. By offering small deals on certain types of criminal activities, such as pardons from jailtime and reductions in sentences for friends, he was able to convince some of these old Mordino family members to be informants for Tatum and thus he was always able to keep an eye on the two remaining families that he considered a threat.
Tatum, acting on the information cleared the building and managed to ensure that there were no casualties from the resulting explosion from his office, rendering the assassination attempt as a failure. He then requested support from the remaining military forces in the town to bolster his local police force with additional troopers in order to arrest Mr. Salvatore. With the additional support, Mr. Salvatore was taken into custody and also put on a military tribunal to which he was sentenced to death by hanging. His body was hanged from the top of the Salvatore's bar, where the citizens of the town were able to see first hand that the old order of things in New Reno was coming to an end, as this resulted in the Salvatore's also being fully dismantled by the United Settlements leaving only the Wrights and Bishops in the town.
It was due to the efforts of Sheriff Tatum that I decided to lift the military administration of the town, and allow for local elections. Although in the end, one of the remaining families won the election with their preferred candidate they were careful not to show any disobedience or disloyalty to the new order and ensured that schools would be built, infrastructure improved, and that they would govern with the interest of the people in mind which was enough to satisfy me.
I hope that the New Reno experience can serve in the future as an inspiring story for the history books, but I can definitely see how it could be painted in a poor light. It is never a great nation building story when it's built on the bones of your opposition, however our intentions are indeed pure. And not in a genocidal context, if you know what I mean.
Regardless of the perception of this story, we cannot lose sight of our objectives and we are making great strides of progress in order to ensure that we met them. Secretary of Industry and Commerce Mr. House has been making great strides in his economic programs, managing to ensure the agricultural sector has a stream of fresh water in order to produce crops for food production, to ensuring the establishment of some light and medium manufacturing centers in the heart of the New Vegas region. According to my reports, Vertibird production is proceeding, but with some delays due to the scavenging of parts still being a major part of the process. Mr. House has assured me that these delays will only be temporary, as with the northern regions now secure mining operations can be expanded into various sectors of the state to eradicate these supply deficiencies. The same is also true for the new robotics factories that have bene opened under direct management from Mr. House in order to supplement various security and military functions.
Companies have also begun to set up permanent offices in our territory, after the collapse of the New California Republic. Crimson Caravan, the Gun Runners, Water Merchants, you name them all have offices operating in Freeside which has now grown under the leadership of The Kings who had been receiving support from me personally in their attempts to help the downtrodden peoples of the town, coordinating with the Followers of Apocalypse in the Old Mormon Fort. In short, business is beginning to really enter a boom period and with an increase of economic development, will come an increase of initiative that will be the backbone of our economy, however I can't end this without talking about the political developments.
I had to establish a basic bureaucracy to help run the territory that we had not only annexed into our land, but to manage the ones we already held a firm grip on. These were mostly basic agencies, but included some departments, a legislative branch of government to give more of a democratic feel to our republic split between a popular vote House of Representatives and an appointed Senate, and a Supreme Court. I also transformed the Desert Rangers into the United Settlements Marshals, with an actual stated purpose rather then just to be your roving guns. All these new agencies and departments will help me manage the growing concerns of my growing empire and will ensure the swift implementation of policies and procedures to bring us closer and closer to our final goal.
Oh well, I think that's all I have to say in this entry. I've just received word that my Vertibird is fueled and ready for my trip to New Reno. I'm supposed to be giving a speech in person to the people, highlighting the transformation of the town since we came to be in charge. Can't say I'm super excited, but I do understand the importance of such addresses. Afterwards, I'm going to be visiting some of our northern military installations to give a boost of morale to the troops for their hard work in combatting raiders and facilitating the civil development operations for the betterment of our society. You know, I started this off saying that war never changes. Well you know what else never changes? Politics? I wonder why that is…
Signed,
Governor Washington
Journal Log #01
Mr. New Vegas POV
"You're listening to Radio New Vegas, your little jukebox in the Mojave Wasteland, now with extensions into the northern regions. I am Mr. New Vegas, and I'm here for you. We got some news for you coming right up. The Gun Runners have recently signed off on a new deal with the Department of Defense to deliver up to 1,000 new rifles service rifles to be put into service with the United Settlements military. A spokesperson for the Department of Defense clarifies the deal as a great moment for the relationship between private industry and government, and hopes that cooperation such as this will continue into the near future and produce favorable results for all parties involved.
In addition to this, the Census Bureau has recently released its figures on the population of the State of Nevada. Current figures hold it at around one-hundred and eighty thousand people counting in the mass influx of emigration from the Pacific Confederation of States in the west. The Secretary of Health and Human Services estimates that out of the figure reported from the Census Bureau, thirty-thousand of them still remain stranded in makeshift camps at various western checkpoints such as Mojave Outpost. In a statement released from the governors office, the situation is being resolved, but with the continued influx of refugees spacing and proportional living standards are becoming an issue and leading to delays in processing.
Those are your top stories, gunna play a song for you now and it's about a special someone you find only once in a blue moon."
The voice would then cut, and the radio would then tune in to play "Frank Sinatra Blue Moon."
