Working title: Rise from the Ashes
AN: Wrote this plot bunny a long time ago and decided to polish and publish it. Big time AU at least in terms of Pre-war History, what happens Fallout 4 and New Vegas with minor alterations to Fallout 3
This was somewhat inspired by several incomplete fanfics that I read but did not see being updated anytime soon.
2052:
Resource Wars begin
Several Anti-war protesters including one Shaun Maxson (Father of Roger, Nora Maxson and adoptive father of Jacob Maxson) are killed, his wife Elizabeth and her children move to Lexington Virginia
Jason Frost 'retires' from DIA field operations , assumes his original identity as Michael Greenwood.
2054:
Project Safehouse begins, Vault-tec begins construction of vaults.
Michael Greenwood elected as a Senator in the Southwest Commonwealth.
2055:
US Government's Phoenix Project begins.
Oil and other fuels are stockpiled in small amounts to be stored in the future vault.
Viable Location the Vault is found South of Big Mountain.
Construction of the Underground facility begins.
2060:
Senator Michael Greenwood provides silent support to the project, provides political connections and additional funding.
Construction of the Phoenix Vault is completed.
2061:
Expansion's to vault begin, intent is to build larger storage areas, underground factory complex, warehouses and Hydroponics farm with the purpose of creating a self-sustaining vault.
2062:
One hundred units of Sentry Robots are brought to the vault to be stored.
2065:
Expansion of vault facilities completed, expansion of Cryo Chambers begin.
Mothballed vehicles are sent to "New Phoenix" for storage.
Government alters evacuation plans, Governmental officials assigned to project phoenix
2066:
China Invades Alaska
Senator Michael Greenwood helps one Reid Underwood form Quaere Verum, acting as one of many silent backers. The purpose of Quaere Verum is to expose the Conspiracy.
Project Scientists and Engineers begin construction of Cold Fusion Generators after receiving data from the Power-Armor Project.
2067:
Jacob Maxson drafted into the Military, scouted and recruited into the Army Ranger's.
2072:
All units assigned to the Project are formed into what became known as the Joint Task force or 'JTF'
Cryo Chamber expansion completed.
Cold Fusion Generators completed.
Project Researchers begin working on on alternative Cold Fusion Engine designs
Senator Greenwood ensures that several Garden of Eden Creation Kits were 'acquired' from Vault-Tec
2074:
JTF Ranger Battalions assigned to Project Phoenix sent to Anchorage, Alaska
2075:
After the military success of the Rangers, the rest of the Military units attached to Phoenix Project shipped off to Alaska, Anchorage. (Project Personnel convinced US Military officials provide materials and supplies for the Project)
Quaere Verum destroyed, The Enclave decries them as crackpot conspiracy theorists.
Senator Greenwood and the other silent Quaere Verum backers are able covers their tracks.
2076:
Prototype of Mister Gutsy are completed, a small number of units are sent to the Phoenix Vault.
Mothballed Gauss weapons are shipped to Phoenix Vault.
Controls attached to the Phoenix Vault only assigned government officials can open vault after the sealing.
Family members of Phoenix Military Personnel sent to the Vault.
With the government inspection of the vault came the realization that the Project Phoenix Vault was many times larger than any Vault made by Vault-Tec, practically an underground city.
Several Army units attached to "ensure" the loyalty of the Project Personnel.
During the Anchorage deployment several Military officers assigned to the Phoenix Project are caught in friendly fire 'accidents'.
2077:
January 10th, Alaska has been reclaimed by the United States.
January 15th, Major General Marcus Speirs is assigned head of the Phoenix Project military arm due to the deaths of the other officers.
February 5th, Units assigned to Project sent back home, additional units in form of Marine divisions attached
March 23rd, Speirs begins private investigations into the deaths of his predecessor and several of his peers, resulting in contact with the Silent backers of the Project, made aware of the Conspiracy.
April 9th, with the T-45's being replaced by the newer T-51's, a number of mothballed T-45's are sent to Phoenix Vault
June 15th, Dr Erika Braun and her scientists complete modification's the acquired G.E.C.K's, They will now work as advertised.
July 4th,
Monitoring equipment and transmitters discovered in the Vault during routine inspection, left alone for the time being.
Materials for additional cryo-pods are delivered to the Vault
October 19th Senator Michael Greenwood destroys all data pertaining to Phoenix Project, actions would not be found out until it was too late
October 20th, Senator Greenwood contacts Dr. Erika Braun, she promptly disables all equipment used to monitor the Phoenix Vault
October 22nd, Plans for XVB02 or Vertibird aircraft are sent to the Phoenix Project.
October 23rd, Great War Begins, the Bombs Drop, China targets the West Coast first.
Several Vertibirds that were meant for the project crash outside of the Vault.
Senator Michael Greenwood and several non-enclave affiliated officials reach the Vault
(Conspiracy) Governmental officials assigned to Project Phoenix perish en route to the Vault, In truth Major-General Marcus Speirs had several ranger squadrons eliminate them and their escorts on the advice of Michael Greenwood.
Groups of Civilians manage to reach the Vault, allowed entrance
Officials do not arrive, All assigned soldiers, personnel and their families have entered the Vault.
Vault is sealed and soldiers assigned to Project Phoenix are placed into Cryogenic sleep.
Mr Handy Robots activated to maintain vault with a skeleton crew of technicians rotated out of cryosleep to maintain the facilities of the Vault.
2200:
Irradiated creatures break into the vault, Technicians are able to hold them off but several soldiers including one Sergeant Benjamin Montgomery are thawed out to repel creatures.
Creatures are given the designations "Mole-rat" "Radroach" and "Rad-rat"
Creatures destroyed, Soldiers returned to Cryosleep
2078:
Major-General Marcus Speirs and Dr. Erika Braun Thawed out
Michael Greenwood Thawed out
2280:
Encryption cracked, Entirety of Project Phoenix begins the process of thawing out of Cryosleep
Underground Factory complex is activated, manufacturing of building materials begins
Soldiers and their civilian family members thawed out, occupy underground residence
Due to being the highest ranking Military officer left in the USAF, Military personnel and Senator Michael Greenwood agrees that Marcus Speirs should be promoted to General
2281:
Keeping the others in storage, Two modified G.E.C.K's are used to establish 'New Pheonix' and create arable farmland.
Soldiers of Project Phoenix emerges from the Vault.
What remains of the Civilian government agrees that Martial Law shall be instated until the Area surrounding the Vault and newly established city is secured and any immediate threats are eliminated.
Cold Fusion Generators are made from G.E.C.K's power sources used to provide power to New Phoenix.
Several squads of soldiers sent out to scout the surrounding wasteland, The squad sent towards Las Vegas goes missing, soldiers presumed KIA until further notice.
Two more scouts are sent Northwards towards the Mojave...
Project Phoenix
Governmental/Civilian Leader: Michael Greenwood
Military Leader: Major-General (General) Marcus Speirs
Head of Research: Dr. Erika Braun
Notable Military personnel: Major James Dornan (Army),Major Aarne Johansson (Army Rangers) Captain Jacob Maxson(Army Rangers), Major Jethro Diamond (Marine Corp), Gunnery Sergeant Benjamin Montgomery (Marine Corp), Major Stephen Hackett (Air force) First Lieutenant Hannah Shepard (Air Force)
Notable Science Personnel: Dr. Thomas Faraday (Physics,) Dr. Carlos Marshall (Engineering, Weapons), Dr. Amanda Lovelace (Biology, Medicine)
Military Strength: 8,000 (discounting Robotic Auxiliaries and support staff)
Locations: New Phoenix(South of New Vegas and Big MT, East of Phoenix)
With tensions rising in the World the US Government had made several contingency plans to survive the possible nuclear war, one of those plans was Project Phoenix. The Project was intended to "ensure the survival of the United States of America". Allowing it to 'rise from the ashes' hence the name Phoenix, While the government was evacuated off planet via the Poseidon Oil rig, at least that was the original plan.
Officially the Project was made for several purposes, including development of technologies needed to survive in the aftermath of a Nuclear War. When Doctor Stanislaus Braun completed Garden of Eden Creation Kit or G.E.C.K, several of these units were 'misplaced' and delivered to Project Phoenix. Further testing made them realize that it may not fully work as intended as several models had differing results when tested, as such researchers devoted time to ensuring that it did work as intended.
As mentioned before the purpose of the Project was to ensure that America Stayed under American control by promoting this objective they garnered far more support than a certain group would have liked, thanks to this support they had been given access to tried and true weapons, weapons that could be used in harsh environments. An example of this would be their standard firearms the M-45 and R91 rifles, and the AER9 and Wattz 2000 laser weaponry. Suits of T-45 and T-51 Power armors were requisitioned and delivered to the project. A few experimental weapons and tech have also been delivered to them as well, examples include several units of the experimental T-60 power armor, and experimental weaponry and cybernetics from Poseidon Energy. Another example would have been the Mister Gutsy's and Assaultrons that were sent to Phoenix Vault alongside the schematics needed to produce more.
The Vault was originally designed to house several Army battalions and scientists. But as the project developed the vault had to be expanded, it needed additional residence space for families of the soldiers and scientists, it needed addition bays for Hydroponic farms. It got to the point that the vault had essentially become a vast underground complex one of the largest if not the largest in America. The Vault eventually had enough redundant measures that the inhabitants could have very like stayed underground indefinitely or survive the Wasteland even if the G.E.C.K's did not work as advertised.
Armament
Your average Phoenix Project Infantryman was equipped with combat armor but the battle-dress itself often varied among units as most of them came from different branches of the US military. Some units came from the regular army, others came from the Ranger divisions and shortly after the Anchorage Reclamation two Marine divisions were attached to the Project.
One of the battalions attached to the Project Phoenix were Power-armored infantry giving them access to about eight-hundred soldiers familiar with the use of Power Armor. The mainstay power armor of the US Army was T-51F model of Power Armor. But due to the abundance of T-45's it was easier to retrofit their T-45's with better systems such as an improved power grid to improve energy efficiency and enhanced servomotors to improve mobility. This resulted in the Upgraded T-45's becoming the workhorse power armor for the Mechanized infantry division with the T-51 being used by the more veteran troops.
The USAF valued their veteran soldiers, as such those who actually survived their tours were usually given (read: forced) Cybernetic implants that augmented their combat abilities, individuals of note include one Jacob Maxson and Benjamin Montgomery, two reconnaissance experts who were given several implants to increase their survivabilty. In fact, the majority of the Project soldiers from the Anchorage campaign have been given cybernetic implants on the orders of General Constantine Chase.
Since the Phoenix Project had servicemen and women from multiple branches the standard Firearms varied between units. The standard firearm was R91 Assault rifle for the soldiers from the Army Division. The S45-B Combat rifle was utilized by the Ranger Division , the S45-B was favored due it's high stopping power allowing the Rangers to fight in most Combat situations. Another weapon was the M-45 combat rifle. It was utilized by both Rangers and soldiers from the Marine Corp, it could converted from a battle rifle to a high-power semi-auto marksman rifle or even modified into a shotgun.
Like other weapons the Colt 6520 10mm pistol was chosen as the main sidearm for soldiers due to its reliability and the ease manufacture. Due to the fact that the military units came from different branches there were other sidearms in use like the Colt .45 Auto, AEP7 and Wattz 1000 laser pistols.
Snipers from all the battalions were armed with were equipped with DKS sniper rifles with the elite marksmen being given access to AMR's and Gauss Rifles
Power armored troops were often equipped with heavy weapons such as the Avenger Minigun or a Rocket Launcher, carrying an AER9 as a back up weapon.
Marines were equipped with different equipment from their Peer's. The AER9 and/or Wattz 2000 Laser rifles with AEP7's as sidearms were common amongst marines, though some marines preferred old fashioned firearms like the R91 assault rifle or the Colt .45 Auto
Phoenix Project Motor pool
Stored in an underground facility connected to the Vault, the Phoenix Project was given access to mothballed vehicles from before the Resource Wars. This includes several Armored troop transports, twenty troop-transport helicopters and other vehicles. Unfortunately, time has not been kind to these vehicles and it will take some time before the entire motor pool goes operational.
Military Strength and Doctrine
Without counting support staff or force multipliers such as Robots the Phoenix Project can count on about a eight thousand effectives. The Leader of the projects military was Major General Speirs.
Due to the need to secure their surrounding area and the fact that they cannot risk sending large units out into the wasteland, They had to make up for lacking numbers via force multipliers, this includes but is not limited to Artillery, Air Support and Robotic assistance via sentry bot and assaultron support.
While they do have about eight hundred soldiers familiar with the use of Power armor, they only have about two hundred and fifty suits total and must be careful with their deployments, as at the moment they lack the advanced facilities needed to make more Power armor exoskeletons.
A squad often consisted of five soldiers. Most would be equipped with either M45's or R91's one or two would carry a heavy ordinance weapon like a grenade launcher, Bigger weaponry such as the Avenger Minigun or Rocket Launcher were reserved for Power Armor troops.
Due to their low numbers the Project had to emphasize combined-arms tactics. Due to lacking the complex machinery needed to produce more, Power armor was used as a heavy weapons platform, supporting an infantry advance rather than a spearhead. Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Braun and her personnel, A G.E.C.K was modified to convert matter into oil. This resulted in the endeavor to restore the Pre-Resource war vehicles, such as helicopters and their troop transport variants into working condition. The intent was to have them be used as troop transports as a stopgap measure.
Most of the Military elements of the Project come from the USAF's Ranger and Marine corp, with a few units from the regular army attached. They have support staff from the Airforce in form of Vertibird pilots and mechanics, And elements from the Army Corp of Engineers.
The long Author's Note:
The S-40-B Combat rifle is the Fallout New Vegas Service rifle chambered to 12.7mm (think Survivalist Rifle).
M-45 is the Fallout 4 Combat rifle.
The troop transport helicopters are CH-47 or CH-46 (Chinook and Sea Knight) helicopters.
The BDU (AKA: Battle Dress Uniform) varies from standard combat armor, to ranger armor to the Marine combat armor found at Far Harbour.
So yeah, this was something I wrote awhile ago (about two months before I posted the first chapter of Records), I chose the number based off of how many soldiers the NCR and Caesar's Legion would potentially have, I am assuming that both factions have brought a portion of their entire force as they both control large areas, NCR has about 10,000+ soldiers while Caesar's Legion would have brought about 8700+.
I am assuming that the NCR has many more back home and on the Legion this is a very low estimate on the assumption that Caesar got a minimum of a hundred men for each tribe he conquered (87) and a statement made in game where someone mentioned that Caesar had thousands of men behind him. Whereas the OC faction would have about 8,600 soldiers total (including military robots) which means committing a large number is very risky for them (which they won't, i'm not even sure if they will send men to the Mojave) as they need to protect their own home.
Now I never actually found any source that gave me a definite number in terms of faction soldiers, so I may alter this when I do more research
New Phoenix is located South of Real-life Kingston peak, California. Which is where I assume Big MT is located based off of Joshua Graham's Dialogue in Honest Hearts.
Loads and loads of OC's in this, Jacob is the younger adopted brother of one Roger Maxson. Jacob is a veteran soldier who fought in Operation Anchorage alongside one Benjamin Montgomery and Nathaniel Howard (You may recognize those names). In this AU The Anchorage Simulation was a highly fictionalized and significantly altered account of Jacob's exploits with the Lone Wanderer essentially taking his place. Jacob will be the Main PoV involved in the events (alongside the Courier who now that I've polished it will have a background based off of the Fallout: New California Mod) of both New Vegas and the Commonwealth.
Other OC's include the Project heads like Marcus Speirs, a maverick military commander and a bit more notably Michael Greenwood/Jason Frost a US anti-war Politician and former/retired DIA operative. An arc I want to write involves the 'Great Game' mentioned in Point Lookout.
The Truth about the Project is that it also acted as dumping ground for Soldiers and Scientists that were disaffected with the current government. Both Speirs and Braun were essentially sent there because they did not approve of what was happening (Read: the previous Non-intervention with the UN and Annexation of Canada and got screwed over by politics, The Major-General was somewhat vocal with how Anchorage was handled and the sheer amount of casualties taken, Braun found out about the FEV at Mariposa when samples were sent to her for research). Jacob Maxson who in this story is a War hero was attached to the project due to his father being a part of the anti-war protests, Benjamin Montgomery and some the Anchorage soldiers were attached because they were essentially damned by association (Not that they blamed Jacob)
For the Government (Read: Enclave) it was never meant to be a plan to safeguard America, but the ones placed in charge had originally decided that if they were going supposed to be contingency plan for potential Nuclear Annihilation, it was going to be done right. With the backing of a US senator who actually wanted it to work, they were able to make it happen. As the Project builds up the ones in charge start seeing an unpleasant picture. What essentially happens right before the War starts is a mutiny against the government. The Project leaders and backers seal up the Vault before the Government (Read: Enclave) can take control of it which happens just as bombs drop nearby New Phoenix Vault.
The Story will mostly be told from Jacob's perspective so to speak, as there will be segments with other characters as PoV's or interludes and the occasion Pre-war interlude.
Could this become a sort of Curb-stompy/invincible army OP Faction fanfic? Possibly, though their situation is a fish-out-water scenario (they're gonna love facing the mutated beasts like Deathclaws and Cazadores, some will even get to meet the Tunnelers of the Divide, fun!) but then quickly adapting (Most of the soldiers in Mechanized, Marine and ranger groups are Anchorage Veterans, I would like to think that they would adapt/learn faster) and beginning the process of rebuilding. Due to their familiarity and knowledge of pre-war tech they can potentially ramp-up in terms of military strength via force multipliers. Though numbers and manpower will be an issue for them.
Several times I asked myself if this was realistic and then had to remind myself that it is Fallout, not necessarily that realistic. For this I'll be upscaling a lot (in the sense that areas/regions in the games are much larger so to speak)
Fun Fact: everything I looked up on the Marines in Fallout pointed out the the US Marine Corp had access to energy weapons.
There were several images that inspired me to write this google "Fallout 4 Concept Art Battle" It was the first four that set off the plot bunny for some reason.
Their tech will 'mostly' be the stuff we see in New Vegas, Fallout 1 and 2 since they're in the West Coast (examples of things they won't have include X-01 Power armor, Plasma weaponry seen in Fallout 3 and new vegas.)
I've always wanted to throw characters like Cass, Boone and Arcade into the Commonwealth which is where i would go with this eventually.
Another reason for publishing/writing/fleshing this out was because Fallout related plot bunnies were distracting me when I was working on other stuff including schoolwork
In the next couple of weeks I'm going to dump everything I wrote for this after some editing.
Everything will be posted in this. unlike how I separated it like Records and the Forge, though i will attempt to keep it chronologically aligned