Vera Weatherly
June 10th, 2276

Vera Weatherly found herself missing her brother, Fred Wilks, more so than ever. She wished she went alongside him and his son to Greyditch because at least then they would be together for the storm the Capital Wasteland had found itself in. Vera had worked hard to build herself a life in Rivet City and it felt like everything was being thrown in uncertainty.

Nothing would be changed even if she moved to Greyditch alongside her brother. Vera just wanted comfort from the rapidly changing circumstances the city had gotten into. From the letters she had exchanged with her brother via merchants, she knew nowhere else was different. The newcomers were approaching everybody.

She was currently sitting down at the front desk for her hotel inside Rivet City. Usually her robot would be doing this job but she needed the monotony as she wanted to turn her brain off. The only comfort she could achieve was going to Saint Monica's Church. Father Clifford was a kind man who was able to calm people down and even the City Council listened to his wise words.

Sadly the City Council wasn't going to listen to him or anyone else's opinion on what should be done. It's why when those paper pushers and the President sweet talked the City Council they had just folded. No one could convince them otherwise after renegotiations had failed. Somehow Vera found herself in the minority in Rivet City on what should be done about the 'government' and their offer.

Vera believed that they truly were the government. But she had many qualms about the way they were doing things and what authority they had over the wasteland. They had been gone for so long, what authority did they really have? She recalled that the Pre-War government had been democratic but she never recalled voting for this Augustus Autumn. They had even called themselves the Enclave for a while before ditching that name.

It seemed that since the Brotherhood was wiped out, the City Council saw resistance as futile. Vera couldn't fully blame them as she recalled what the fear was like when the Brotherhood base had been wiped out. Everyone had been worried about Super Mutants and the oceans of ferals ghouls sleeping inside the city. Other than the grief expressed by those who had known some Brotherhood members, it was the biggest thing on everyone's minds.

Then the Jefferson Memorial that had been a problem for Rivet City was occupied. Super Mutants were exterminated en masse near Rivet City. The same people who had wiped the Brotherhood out had taken their place as protectors of the Capital Wasteland. Patrols popped up all over the place to crack down on Super Mutants and feral ghouls.

The military patrolled using vehicles that looked like they came straight from a Pre-War comic book. The flying machines called Vertibirds were even more impressive as they were all over the place now. After they had captured the Jefferson Memorial lights were set up and all of Rivet City could see it clearly at night.

Then began the cleansing. Caravans, scavengers and many others witnessed these military patrols going house to house clearing out ferals in the city. Building after building was breached and cleared using squads of Power Armored soldiers. Any scavenger who had missed what was happening would probably be puzzled why there were no feral ghouls and doors had been spray painted with strange symbols.

She recalled merchants complaining that passing by some roads was a hassle because their brahmins would get spooked by the Vertibirds passing over with sirens blaring. No one knew why until they realized they were attracting ferals en masse and then bombing them from afar.

Slavers from Paradise Falls and several other locations were gutted. She had heard from government officials and the Stars and Stripes radio that the slaves were freed and then relocated to other locations the government had under control. Though some opted to leave the region to look for family.

The reason the City Council was so open to dealing with the government was because of the exodus. Doctor Madison Li, several scientists and a few others fled immediately after the Brotherhood were wiped out. Doctor Li only gave a vague warning on how they should all flee the Enclave and left quickly afterwards. The production of medical supplies, clean water and advanced fertilizer became difficult without her. Doctor Li and her team seemingly took their notes with them so they had trouble reproducing what she achieved and things became increasingly difficult within Rivet City.

All of these things presumably weighed on the City Council. Then Vertibirds and vehicles approached Rivet City carrying water and diplomats. They had approached Megaton and several smaller settlements from what she heard. Within weeks it was like the entire Capital Wasteland was listening to the government in exchange for what seemed like limitless water.

Everyone panicked when they came to Rivet City. When the panic settled and the government negotiated with the City Council everything seemed so uncertain. Vera recalled feeling betrayed when the City Council decided to give into their demands but that feeling dissipated when she saw the benefits it brought.

Everyone was able to procure water for drinking and even cleaning. Though with the caveat that the government will eventually stop giving it out for free and instead allow people to buy it with their new currency later on. Vera wasn't quite sure about that but they said it would be far cheaper than anyone in the Capital Wasteland could sell. She had hoped they were telling the truth as water merchants were always the grubbiest people to deal with.

Large trucks towing medical trailers that were mobile clinics filled with supplies came to Rivet City quickly after the City Council gave their support. Everyone in Rivet City received a free check up alongside treatment if they filled out forms. Within a short amount of time everyone in Rivet City was now healthy. Previous ailments such as radiation sickness, cancer, crotch rot, and all manner of medical issues were cured. The rarity of medical supplies before then meant that people avoided treating themselves since doing so would cost caps.

There was a decent amount of people who endured horrific conditions just because they wouldn't want to risk starvation. Seeing these people lifted up Vera's heart. It felt like her hotel business was now truly booming and that's where her issues with the government started.

When the government first came to Rivet City they had claimed the aircraft carrier as their property and said they were squatters. The City Council had no choice but to accept considering their military strength. Vera couldThe City Council then tried renegotiating with the government over the last few weeks with hopes of stopping it. Now they'd given up completely after being stonewalled at every turn.

They had a little over a year to vacate the aircraft carrier as the government will be setting up new homes for them elsewhere. The government had inspectors all over picking through the aircraft carrier and surveyors inspecting territories around Rivet City for a place to build homes.

It's only because of the numerous benefits the government brought that the people in Rivet City tolerated the government. The deal City Council made assured everyone would be receiving compensation asides from the initial property they would be receiving. Business owners like her filled out special forms so they would receive extra and even loans to build a new business.

The forms included pictures of what her future property might look like. Vera thought they looked like Pre-War advertisements but there were even schematics of the buildings she would acquire. The amount of forms even the average Rivet Citizen had to fill out was ludicrous and business owners like her were drowning in paperwork.

Vera had to admit she liked the idea of acquiring a true hotel but she didn't like the idea of paying off a loan. The man she talked with had an almost plastic face as he assured her that the loans would be easy to pay off since the government didn't want to stifle new businesses.

She wondered how much lingering resentment they sensed from the populace after everything was settled. Everyone filled out forms, took pictures, received medical treatment, acquired paperwork alongside civilian identification and then continued on like normal albeit with some new norms.

When a small garrison was placed at Rivet City, the soldiers on their downtime walked by the merchant stalls and bought anything that caught their eye. They must be paid greatly as they quickly became the favorite customers of many due to the amount of caps they spent. They bought anything ranging from toys, gadgets, comics, and refurbished holotapes containing Pre-War movies.

Military officials even opened up contracts with scavengers and merchants for scrap. Those that carried scrap to their bases were supposedly paid a lot. She heard that some were using brahmins to roll old Pre-War cars to their bases for pay and the military even used Vertibirds to carry heavy loads of scrap at specific locations.

Eventually they started selling medical supplies cheaply to merchants and any doctors left inside Rivet City which was appreciated by everyone. All of this eventually gave the government a decent reputation with Rivet City after tensions had settled.

Vera believed that sometimes it was only her that was so resentful towards the government. The dubious absence, kicking them out of their home, wiping out their previous protectors, and even causing many of their residents to leave immediately after their victory over the Brotherhood.

She understood why. She wished they would push back against it so the City Council looked like they weren't alone in trying to renegotiate. As it stands nothing was going to change and the City Council no longer had any reason to try again.

Her job at the front desk was so boring she could twist around the situation in her head dozens of times before reaching the same conclusion. Vera could gain incredible benefits from this and maybe the uncertainty was worth the trouble. Maybe the paperwork wasn't so bad when she could own a real hotel that wasn't inside a beached boat.

Vera decided that now would be a good time to speak with Father Clifford to settle her worries.

President Augustus Autumn
June 10th, 2276

Every fiber of my being hated paperwork. My previous life hadn't involved this much paperwork and the original Autumn hadn't bothered working this hard on bureaucracy. I was inside my office in Raven Rock taking care of a mountain of documents and forms on my terminals. I felt my eyes ache from the strain of sitting down everyday and doing nothing but paperwork.

Whenever I could get up it was almost always for observation of current operations. At this point I could recite every little detail of what we were doing in the Washington DC area. I recalled from the games that I helped out combat operations in both acquiring the GECK and in Project Purity. Nowadays I cannot even see myself shooting a weapon.

At least the recruits from Vault 101 were doing quite nicely. They will serve as the bedrock for future recruitment drives. Seeing the Lone Wanderer amongst the names of the recruits nearly gave me a heart attack though. I was happy that the freed slaves were doing well amongst the Enclave personnel as they'll help future wasteland integration.

The speed at which we were achieving gains was incredible. Within a short amount of time the Enclave had reformed its structure in both military and civilian departments while eliminating our biggest obstacle from the region. After we had occupied the Jefferson Memorial I had scientists stationed there begin work immediately on bringing the purifier online. The GECK acquired alongside the data from both Vault 87 and Vault 112 was immensely helpful.

The GECK was scanned with every available scanner and then taken apart which each individual part studied. The data we acquired from both Vaults might've been enough for us to eventually build our own GECK's but on hand experience accelerated the process by years. Dr. Matthews assured me that within a year we will have our production equipped to build them.

The fabricators to build them will require custom fabrication methods that exceed anything the Enclave can achieve as Vault-Tec at the time was able to use the entire American market to source the right factories to build each part separately which were then assembled to make the GECK. The investment into this technology was well worth it in my eyes as GECK technology will accelerate rebuilding America by centuries.

I recalled reading over every file we acquired about the GECK and then actually looking at it. Outside of microfusion it was probably the greatest success humanity had ever achieved. It was a once in a generation technological marvel that threw into question humanity's place in the world. Even if we disregard the terraforming and matter replication technology, acquiring the GECK will improve our own nuclear power by decades.

The small contained cold fusion generator that powered the genesis device would help us improve our own microfusion devices and engines. Studying it will allow us to come up with solutions that will eventually power Liberty Prime as well. Hopefully the data will speed up our building of cold fusion power plants.

The implications made me giddy. After the GECK had been dismantled I had the parts handed off to the Waters of America Project which brought immediate success. We were now using clean water for dealing with wastelanders. Everyone in the region relied on limited clean water sources, outside water merchants or straight up drinking the irradiated water sources with rationed RadAway.

After both Megaton and Rivet City agreed to our demands and accepted our authority things became infinitely easier. After we brought them on board we broadcasted our offer to the entire region. From what I understand the southern half of Pennsylvania, the northern half of Virginia, and nearly all of Maryland were receiving the broadcast.

With just basic medical supplies and water we had won the hearts and minds of the Capital Wasteland. Traders who acquired medical supplies and water for cheap will carry word of the government's return. Our attack on the slavers in Paradise Falls and other locations will be carried to all raiders and slavers.

I want it to be known that the US Government was back and was here to stay. I won't tolerate slavery and destitution in this country.

I don't want to be a brutal dictator deciding whether or not a community rejoins the government. Democracy shall be reinstituted wherever the government touches. It's why I was enabling more subtle ways of influencing communities. If people wanted to use old rusted bottle caps for trade then I'll let them do so after I devalued the entire market by flooding caps in by the thousands.

We had already opened up deals with any trader willing to use their brahmins to drag Pre-War cars into our bases and then opened up scrap bounties for anyone bringing in rare metals or technologies. After we had given water and medical aid, no one looked at us oddly for being so generous. From their point of view we were just extremely wealthy.

It solved our resource shortage, brought people jobs, and will eventually allow us to introduce a more stable currency. Once caps go away our new currency will be used with those we have previously worked with and they'll generously be paid. Hopefully this will be the building block needed to make a bunch of small businesses that will grow into full fledged companies. This was all in addition to the companies we will make wholesale and through cheap loans. All of the market building was being calculated through the ZAX and in a few short years the newly built economy will rocket upwards.

When I had discussed with my Cabinet on our potential growth models, I had considered rapid expansion then rebuilding. Perhaps we should just conquer as much as possible then rebuild? The idea had been quickly thrown out. Rebuilding that way wasn't rebuilding as we would always be delayed through resource shortages and local problems popping up in new regions. The wasteland was unpredictable and we wouldn't be able to deal with our bottlenecks while we were neck deep in emerging problems in newly reclaimed lands. It just wouldn't present a good sign to those who might join us down the road.

The model that we decided upon was much more stable. We would acquire the Washington DC region which included parts of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. We will then take our time rebuilding the region so that we won't have bottleneck issues. Manpower, food, water, materials, factories, and living space will be handled so that when we breach other states we will be able to efficiently deal with any issues that come up.

Already we have the region being culled. Entire city blocks were being cleared of feral ghouls and Super Mutants. Patrols had quelled raider activity and raids upon any big raider den had those scum fleeing the region. Vertibirds were flying uncontested and nothing stood in our way.

All seemed well but now was the time of endless paperwork and debates. Already the Emergency Congress and my Cabinet were in hot debate on how we should proceed. I hadn't expected the xenophobic organization to be so passionate on how we should help the wasteland. It was both a pleasant surprise and an annoyance. I felt that our growth model settled the debate but some of my supposed opposition in the Enclave raised good points.

We were meant to be handling threats but what about threats outside our region? Pittsburgh needed to be handled sooner rather than later. What about Pre-War highways? We could easily blitz through hundreds of miles of highways using armored vehicles and Vertibirds. Could we not do basic patrols of them? These sorts of questions weighed on me. Though they didn't weigh on me compared to what some of my Cabinet had requested. The reclamation of West Virginia.

I couldn't remember much as I was only an eight year old at the time but I recalled during the Exodus from Navarro that we had stopped there to pick up a decent number of the local population inside the Greenbrier Bunker and some supplies. The region was on the table for abandonment ever since. The only thing that stopped the Enclave from ditching it was because of the advanced production facilities it housed and the immensely valuable technology in the region.

The sealed nuclear silos underground surfaced in my mind as one of the many reasons we hadn't abandoned the region outright. Previously the Greenbrier Bunker was the control point for one of the most advanced orbital platforms the United States ever produced. Even more so than the Bradley-Hercules Platform. The Kovac-Muldoon Platform had some of the most advanced anti-detection systems on the planet combined with the ability to launch missile strikes and recon areas. It had been able to deliver supplies and register threats wherever the orbit allowed it.

Sadly the advanced Kovac-Muldoon Platform had critical flaws that made the reactor fail and the platform later crashed to Earth somewhere in the ocean after a couple decades. I felt sadness for such a great piece of technology being lost to the Enclave but the story surrounding its usage gave me a headache.

A part of myself wanted to ignore the region for a little while longer but I no longer could. The issue was that it doesn't quite follow what I know of Fallout 76. The timeline was off and the events that took place felt wrong. Which made me nervous as there was a lot to fear in West Virginia.

I had to separate what I knew from the game, what I understood from our files, and what I could guess. The Enclave in Appalachia actually served their purpose unlike in the game. Government officials arrived en masse and were able to safely stay inside Greenbrier Bunker and remained in contact with the rest of the Enclave. Till their communications went down.

After the Great War, the Appalachian Enclave played with genetic engineering and produced Scorchedbeasts. Those Scorchedbeasts then reportedly broke out and harassed the region, eventually culminating in the spread of the Scorched Plague that wiped out a fair portion of the region.

The story was wrong from what I understood. I surmised that the story was likely modified because the Enclave had only just entered the apocalyptic age and the bunker was politically unstable. The Scorchedbeasts hadn't broken out, they'd been released. And the Appalachian Enclave should've been wiped out because of MODUS and the Scorched Plague.

Everything gets even more muddled as the Appalachian Enclave had a schism and then lost communication with the entire network. They reported that they dealt with the schism, the Scorched Plague and a 'Scorchedbeast Queen' with some Vault Dwellers from Vault 76 during the blackout. Afterwards they had spent some time on repairs and eventually reconnected. They had seemingly lost 90% of their population during the entire blackout from High Command's perspective.

The event was a huge debacle and many details were still extremely muddled. I couldn't even see what the schism was about aside from several members inside the bunker being megalomaniacs. The files made me feel fortunate at not having to deal with such a mess.

The rest of the Enclave couldn't access the Kovac-Muldoon Platform but they could see the logs. High Command knew the Appalachian Enclave wasn't forthcoming about every detail as they spammed the Kovac-Muldoon Platform during the blackout. From what the official logs indicate, the Appalachian Enclave used the platform to wipe several positions when the Scorched Plague had been ripping through the region.

What I could guess was that the Appalachian Division of the Enclave used the platform to wipe out Brotherhood splinter cells or maybe other splinter organizations that had access to military technology. Perhaps using the bombardment to kill the Scorched, Super Mutants, and maybe even rivals in the region. Though it seemed the people from Vault 76 weren't included.

High Command couldn't rip out every detail out of the Appalachian Division. I couldn't tell what High Command had been thinking at the time but I assumed they thought the Appalachian Enclave used it against threats and just… turned a blind eye to it. High Command had a rare moment of sympathy towards the gutted division inside West Virginia.

The Enclave bore witness to one of their divisions nearly being wiped out because of a schism and thoughtless genetic tampering. The events that took place in Appalachia looked small but the ramifications were huge.

From my point of view, the Enclave were incredibly scared as they panicked. The rest of the Enclave had been panicked so much that there was visible change in Enclave policy post-Appalachia. Stricter command structure and communication with other Enclave divisions only with Presidential approval had turned the Enclave into a nearly full authoritarian organization with only a facade of democracy.

The reforms they went through eventually culminated in the last remnants of the good inside the Enclave being phased out. Decades passed and any original Enclave members from the Pre-War government were gone and what had been left was a cold sterile organization devoid of taking risks.

It was an incredibly tragic story. These events likely culminated in the plot of Fallout 2. I'm happy that the Enclave in Appalachia had survived the events but I had some questions regarding the thing inside of it. I have confirmed from the Enclave network that MODUS did exist and reportedly was functioning at full capacity inside the Greenbrier Bunker. When I had talked with the commander of the bunker he had been confused on why I was so fixated on it.

From what I could tell MODUS was operating normally and wasn't acting unusual. He had sent over the operation logs regarding MODUS and anything regarding the ZAX. I found the data showing no signs of what I was looking for. I realized it wasn't about finding the smoking gun. It was about finding the lack of it.

I looked through the logs he had sent and realized that all logs regarding the communication with Eden weren't there. Then I personally went into the ZAX server room and looked at Eden's own logs and found the truth. MODUS was operating at sentient levels and had hidden the logs regarding Eden and his communication with him.

The rest of my findings made everything weird. It was like Eden had only one sided communications with MODUS as MODUS bluntly refused to recognize him as an authority. I couldn't tell if it was an AI superiority complex or if MODUS refused to see an AI as the rightful leader of the Enclave.

I'll have to personally visit West Virginia at some point to learn more as Vault 79 and several nuclear silos needed to be acquired. I wanted to acquire the nuclear silos for obvious reasons but Vault 79 was an absolute must for rebuilding society. The benefits of acquiring the entire Pre-War US Gold Reserve would help us rebuild.

Possibly even Vault 96 for Pre-War genetic data they had stored because while we had our own gene banks and databases it doesn't hurt to have more. Cloning up actual animals for agriculture was going to be a huge hurdle but it must be done. Disgusting mutated animals wasn't something I wanted the new America using for agriculture.

All of these factors weighed on my mind. I think I'll agree to my Cabinet's recommendation to expand the initial reclamation to West Virginia as well since the region was so valuable. Vault 76 supposedly went back underground after they realized West Virginia was filled with hostile wildlife and no population to speak of outside their allies in the Greenbrier Bunker.

After I speak with MODUS… or deal with him, I'll get more details on the region and the Vault. Opening up Vault 76 would help the rebuilding process as Greenbrier Bunker only had around two hundred people left inside and most of them were civilians.

I eyed another form loaded up on my terminal and then stared at the time. Maybe I should look for a Vice President at this rate.

ANs:

Another 4k chapter? Honestly when I began this I was expecting to write out like 8k of just… exposition. I was able to convey a lot of information in a smaller chapter than expected which I am happy about.

Timeskips are coming. I feel the urge to jump a couple years… maybe more than necessary. I'll resist though. Some small jumps to Pittsburgh and West Virginia next. Then afterwards we'll see a big jump to… Vault 111. This arc takes place around a year before Fallout 3 and a little over a decade before Fallout 4. When we finally get to Boston everything will be quite different as it'll be a whole new arc.

Hopefully I answered a lot of questions for future plans in this chapter. Especially for how the Enclave will be operating. I haven't gone into every plan the Enclave has. I want to diverge from fics/mods/concepts that have similar ideas and showing my hand at this point would be redundant.

For Fallout 76 fans I hope I made you happy even though I took a lot of liberties. Actually had the most fun in Fallout 76 just digging into the Enclave. I'd like to include more content to make you guys happy so just wait for that West Virginia chapter.