Fallout: The Human Element
By Dan Shannon
Prolouge
Holodisk log. Resident 53-10385. June 11th, 2285.
War. War never changes.
I once thought I knew everything. I had lived my life in Vault 53, buried deep in the limestone caverns of the Upper Midwest. Of all of it, I thought this was what life was supposed to be. No changes, no surprises; just fix this, repair that. I once thought I knew everything. That was until the day...
The day I learned the truth.
In the years before the Great War of 2077, the United States was very stable and prosperous.
That is, on the surface.
Below the saccharin-sweet, clean skin of the United States' prosperity was the true oily, rancid horror of human nature: Greed. Of the 122 Vaults constructed by Vault-Tec, only 17 were built to public expectations. All others for public use were built to experiment on the various "Vault Dwellers", sometimes killing them as part of the result. The true greed involved was not in the indifference in human death, but the indifference combined with interest in self-preservation. It was a type of selfishness I was never aware of or brought up on. Vault-Tec and the Enclave - the remnants of the Pre-War American Government and heads of major American corporations - made their shelters to make sure they survived, whole and intact without impurity. Whatever was to happen to the rest of us didn't matter as long as they could use the data to prolong their own lives and their own comfort. We only mattered if it meant they didn't suffer. If we died, so be it.
Of the vaults built in the United States and the Annexed Canada, most vaults were located in the West coast, seeing Vault-Tec was located in California. Because both Vault-Tec and the Enclave needed additional backing for the vaults and other technologies, special shelters were made in the Midwest to "Save" the CEOs and the board members of the major corporations, all headquartered in Chicago. As an end result, four additional vaults were built in the Chicagoland area; misappropriation of materials allowed for the shelters to be built. They were all very close to each other. And I found them.
Corporate and Political agendas; indifference to the horrible fates to further profits; delusions of superiority. The war of survival. To protect the element more important, more powerful, and now more than ever, more scarce than uranium - the human element - it all comes down to me and the people I've befriended along my way. To save all of us where the Vaults were never meant to, life in the Midwest is about to change...
I only pray it's for the better…
