All this recent talk about Fallout has made me want to dust of my own old ideas again for a Fallout game.
Despite how much the franchise has suffered I still dream of making a Fallout game of my own one day, it is one of the biggest wishes in my life.
Now some people have recommended that I reserve this idea perhaps for a Post Apocalyptic universe of my own but I would much rather start anew should I ever work on an original PA universe game/story/whatever.
The time period for this idea is after Fallout New Vegas though it could just as well be after Fallout 2 (though not earlier as the Enclave are mentioned in this)
In general this idea's campaign, characters, and setting are completely separate from Fallout 1, 2, and New Vegas with the exception of some elements here and there such as Super Mutants (I like having Super Mutants around), a BOS Paladin, a base full of dead Enclave members.
Some of this stuff is also clearly inspired by material intended for the canceled Van Buren and some other projects but it is not meant as theft. Rather that I don't want some good ideas to become lost.
Not everything is filled in yet (I sometimes have long periods without inspiration) but I hope to get to that as I update this thread.
What is my intention with this? I just want to post it but I also hope that it shows my creative potential to others.
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Fallout Texas
It's a post apocalyptic wasteland Texas Style!
War, war never changes
At the end of the twenty first century the clouds of war once again loomed over the horizon. As the resources on Earth grew scarce civilization started to fall apart as nation after nation entered conflict with another for the last remnants on the planet.
The United States government foreseeing the coming firestorm initiated Project Safehouse to construct great underground shelters called Vaults that would house and protect those considered important and necessary for the rebuilding of the world after the great darkness had passed.
But the world after the bomb would be a strange and different place. Survivors on the surface emerged from hiding and came together to form new societies, tribes, and raider gangs that prey on each other for survival.
Life itself was also radically changed. Mutagens from the war such as radiation but also the accidental release of the Forced Evolution Virus radically changed plant, animal, and man, twisting them into grotesque shapes that now also seek to make this new world their own.
Separated from the West by a great radioactive no man's land the region once known as the Texas Commonwealth has developed in relative isolation, giving rise to its own societies and communities.
In West Texas towns and cities would gather together under ideals even older than the war itself, forming the Lone Star Confederacy while in East Texas the System, a communist regime whose ideology has adapted to the conditions of the wasteland would arise. Both competing for the same resources and territory.
But as numbers increase and society advances this isolation is slowly coming to an end.
Life in the Texas Wasteland is about to change.
Background
This campaign is set in what would be the equivalent of Texas or the former Texas Commonwealth in the Fallout universe, relatively speaking in the central part of Texas, leading all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.
The region in general suffers from an almost year round radioactive dust bowl with radioactive twisters during the season, and the occasional hurricane coming from the gulf.
Settlements and places of interest would be located at places the least affected by the climate or have developed ways of dealing with the more hostile climate and weather.
The time setting of this campaign is around the time of Fallout 2/Fallout New Vegas. There has been quite some rebuilding taking place in the region and NPCs can tell the player about recent historical events and conflicts that took place in the last century or so such as the founding of the Lone Star Confederacy, the Angels' various crusades and their war with the System, prospectors coming to Houston/Galveston now known as the Drowned City and many others.
The occasional visitor from the West has made it to Texas such as Desert Rangers from Nevada and Arizona, Ghoul travelers, and more recently Super Mutants and perhaps even traders and NCR explorers from the Core region.
At this time, most if not all Vaults have long opened and surviving vault dwellers have established their own settlements or integrated into existing settlements.
The theme of the campaign is being chained or enslaved, literally or figuratively such as being driven by obsessions such as greed or revenge and how to break one's chains and shape one's own destiny.
One thing I would also like to do is bring back a lot of content that was planned for Van Buren but sadly was never used for a Fallout game again.
Poseidon Energy would play a major role in the storyline and there would be a lot of references to them in various locations as well as some of the weapons they were working on named after Greek deities that were planned for Van Buren.
Characters
The player
An escaped slave, the player was once an inhabitant of a small town located near one of Poseidon Energy's R&D complexes which salvage was one of the settlement's means of existence.
One day a mysterious traveler would come to the town to explore a part of the complex that had not been accessed yet by the town's prospectors. He was soon followed by an army of Angels that forcefully took over the town in order to capture this traveler.
Those inhabitants not killed by the Angels were enslaved instead, being considered sinners for recovering and using technology and selling to others. The player was made a personal slave of the Crusader captain Barnabas.
Eventually the player and several of his fellow slaves were liberated by the New Texas Rangers who advised the player to go to Lone Star to find safety there.
During his journey the player learns why the Angels attacked his or her home and now seeks to find out who they were after and what this person wanted from the Poseidon Energy complex.
This journey will make the player come into contact with various governments and factions including the Angels of the Apocalypse again and his former master Barnabas in which the player can take revenge or even make him join the player as a companion.
In the end the player must decide the fate of the Texas Wasteland, gaining access to technology and resources that could restore the region to its pre war state and become the president/CEO of the resurrected Poseidon Energy corporation or break the chains with the past once and for all.
The player gains access to a pipboy at the start up of the game after helping a dying vault dweller who was also a captive of the Angels.
Johnny
One of the first characters the player could potentially meet.
Johnny was a reservist National Guardsman before the War and was a marksman, being proficient with loads of rifles and assault rifles.
He and his squad were called up to secure important locations during the civil unrest crisis, preventing these from being overrun by protesters or possible Chinese agents or sympathizers who would seek to undermine order whenever possible.
Only then the War happened and Johnny and his fellow Guardsmen took cover in a nearby basement or reinforced military structure.
While they had some supplies to hold out for a while their shelter provided inadequate protection and radiation started to seep in. Johnny and several of the other guardsmen had the certain genetic mutation that would make them into Ghouls and during their stay they noticed this change taking place.
When the worst of the effects were over Johnny and the others started to look for more survivors, only exposing themselves to more radiation and released mutagens, accelerating the Ghoulification process.
After the squad members eventually went their own paths Johnny wandered the wasteland for a while, with his family and country gone, he drifted around looking for a goal until he met other Ghouls.
Traxus
A super mutant from the West who together with his brother traveled to the East beyond the mountains and the radioactive no man's land.
Traxus' brother would eventually join a trading caravan set up by Ghouls while Traxus continued to sell his services as a mercenary to anyone who can pay his price.
Recently Traxus' brother has disappeared and Traxus is now investigating this, hoping to find his brother to determine what happened to him.
Katherine “Dusty” Rivas
A member of the New Texas Rangers, Dusty is trained as a combat medic but equally good with a gun or a hand fight as patching up people in the field.
Born in a relatively safe rancher community, there would have been little reason for her to ever wander the wastes and instead remain home and one day perhaps start a family of her home had it not been that the prospect of such a life bored her.
The moment Katherine was of age that she could make her own decision she left the homestead to travel the wasteland and have adventures.
She quickly awoke to the reality of the wasteland and had it not been for the intervention by the Rangers she would have either ended up dead or enslaved.
Munro
An enforcer for the Black Hand, Munro is one of the organization's 'problem solvers' when it comes to situations that require less 'finesse' and more to the point violence.
Munro originally ran with one of the gangs of Texas and would probably have died in the wastelands had a member of the Black Hand not taken interest in the young man, realizing that his talent for fighting and being able to survive or escape any situation that usually killed any other raider.
Under this patron Munro was induced into the Black Hand and received training from their other enforcers, expanding his own skills in armed and unarmed combat.
Munro is not a subtle tool, but he is very effective when it comes to forced persuasion.
Elite Defender Lankin 3rd level
One of ATLANTIS high ranking defenders, Lankin
Barnabas
An officer in the ranks of the Angels' crusaders. Barnabas is one of the Angels’ fiercest soldiers and commanders, being absolutely ruthless to those who stand in the way of the Angels and their cause.
Barnabas used to be the master of the player (and perhaps the brilliant tribal), dragging the player along with him during the crusades he led.
Barnabas had not anticipated intervention by the New Texas Rangers as he was attacking Lone Star and them freeing the player (and the brilliant tribal).
In order to find out why Barnabas led the assault on the player’s home town (the Angels did not attack it to convert the residents) the player will have to track down Barnabas and make him talk (or find his log).
This gives the player the opportunity to have some revenge on Barnabas and possibly even enslave him through use of a bomb collar. (if Barnabas would attack the player the bomb would go off and in the Angels’ eyes this would be an act of suicide, forever denying Barnabas’ entry into Heaven)
Note: if the player would join the side of the Angels and become as loyal and a true believer as any of the Angels’ soldiers could be Barnabas would actually apologize for his earlier treatment of the player back when he/she was a slave.
TASK
A special police modified Mr Handy; TASK was used by the San Antonio police’s anti terrorist unit and designed to locate and dismantle explosives and traps. To suffice in this role TASK is equipped with an enhanced sensor package.
TASK was also used for administrative tasks such as computer maintenance and is therefore programmed to operate computers and other electronic devices.
Currently the robot is located in its docking station in the ruins of the San Antonio main police station and it is programmed not to move beyond a certain range from it.
Vandez
I have Vandez in mind as somewhat of a Spanish or Latin playboy, had he been born before the great war he would probably have moved around in many social circles and high society, and found in various night clubs, bars, and casinos, impressing the ladies and making the men jealous. (the latin lover stereotype)
Vandez is a charmer, the so called ‘lover rather than a fighter’, and he prefers to settle disputes with words rather than with weapons but should the push come to call he is quite skilled with his hands, the knife and handguns.
Though a likeable scoundrel Vandez can occasionally cause problems when his past catches up with him such as one of his many enemies or former lovers. He is also a pick pocket and takes use of an opportunity when it presents itself, even when the player has not authorized it.
Ashiak
A rather cunning and deceitful creature, Ashiak is a tribal shaman the player comes across during the visits to the more tribal regions of Texas. Her elaborate dress up and body paint makes it clear she is not a regular tribal and she makes it clear she is not one either.
Though she understands little of technology other than basic devices and of course weaponry she is hardly impressed or superstitious when people try to intimidate her with advanced know-how or machinery, considering these little more than distractions to the mind.
Ashiak would be even more in tune with nature than even a survivalist like Johnny, knowing what plants are beneficial and which are poisonous and capable of concocting a variety of recipes of stims, drugs, and poisons.
Ashiak used to be the shaman of the Copperheads back when they were one tribe and she seeks to reunite it to turn it back into the tribal force that it used.
Paladin Cage Blackwood
Cage Blackwood is a Brotherhood paladin who has grown disillusioned with the Brotherhood of Steel, finding its policy of not getting involved with the wasteland matters and politics something has come back to haunt the Brotherhood.
He holds the stagnation that has destroyed the Brotherhood as an example on their self imposed isolation.
However that does not mean Cage believes that the Brotherhood should be going around doing 'good deeds', or sharing their knowledge and technology randomly.
Just taking a more active role in order to further their interests.
When the player finds Blackwood for the first time he is in a bar, drinking to forget his problems.
As the player gains his trust he will tell more about the Brotherhood of Steel, how the West Coast chapter went to war with the NCR over control and use of advanced technology and science and how the West Coast chapter destroyed itself when the NCR came too close, destroying the nearby town of Maxson that was under the protection of the BOS.
Blackwood was outside when the elders blew up Lost Hills and fled into the East to avoid by captured by the NCR. Now he is seeking a new cause to dedicate himself to.
My current idea is that the player can convince him to join the Followers of the ATLANTIS and train their defenders.
Professor Lin Xióng
One of the upcoming top scientists of Killeen's community.
Lin is a very methodical and clear headed scientist, having little time for distractions and sometimes even coming over as cold and uncaring towards others.
While not anti social Lin has little patience for people who waste her time for nothing when she feels she needs her attention for much more important goals.
Like everyone else in Killeen Lin's ancestry is of American and Chinese lineage, her ancestors having married with Chinese POWs who were originally held at Fort Hood detainment camps until they were released or escaped just before the nuclear exchange.
Lin would be great at science related subjects, being able to perform certain science rolls for the player but also assist him or her with building things requiring high science skills (energy weapons, Power Armor etc).
Riggs (working name)
A member of the nomadic Truckers, a group of traders and transporters that are the descendants of pre war truck drivers.
Riggs would have his own truck so if the player could recruit him Riggs would allow the player to use.
Also because he often has to perform maintenance and repair on it Riggs is also a mechanic and can assist with making low to mid tier equipment.
Non Player Characters
The Brilliant Tribal/Tribal Warlord
The antagonist of the story and the player's nemesis. The brilliant tribal was once the war chief of the Children of Poseidon, leading their warriors in battle and defense of their territories.
While as 'unsophisticated' as the other tribals, the war chief was still quite smart, capable of making strategies that used the tribe's cache of energy weapons well.
From a young age on he had to face warriors of other tribes as well as 'civilized' people from the settlements that had arisen from the old world ruins.
Prospectors who wished to search the tribe's lands for pre war artifacts and resources but also shady traders and slavers who sought to exploit the tribe.
People like the New Texas Rangers were more sympathetic to the tribe but the Lone Star Confederacy proved to be very disastrous. The LSC had long since had its eyes on the land of the tribe and had tried to gain access and control of it through trade and manipulation.
Eventually when the border of the LSC came to encompass Children hunting territories it was decided that the tribe had to be driven into one of the reservations the LSC had established; often lands with poor soil and few resources.
LSC forces were dispatched to do so but faced the deadly pre war weapons the Children possessed that still worked.
It was during these battles that the young tribal proved his cunning and intelligence and his bravery made him being promoted to warchief.
The war chief and the majority of the tribe's warriors were ready for a long war with the LSC but the New Texas Rangers decided to intervene.
Their mediators made it clear to the tribe elders and the war chief that while their warriors and the armed forces of the LSC would clash with each other that the tribe's unarmed, elderly, and children would probably suffer as would civilians on the side of the LSC.
The war chief wanted to continue the fight but the elders of the tribe decided that such a prolonged conflict would be bad for the Children of Poseidon and might also rile other powers in the wasteland that were now neutral to turn against the tribe.
Rather than going into the reservation the Rangers offered to escort the tribe to a new land far away from the Lone Star Confederacy which the tribals accepted.
And for some time peace followed though the war chief and the tribe's warriors kept grumbling about the loss of their old home.
Eventually Missionaries of the Angels of the Apocalypse appeared in their new lands, claiming to bring the Word of God and seeking to convert the Children.
After the missionaries told the Children about their God, the war chief told the scouts that they were the descendants of a god themselves that lived before the great war and that one day he would return.
The Missionaries did not take kind of this type of blasphemy in their eyes and when they insulted the Children for being ignorant savages the war chief told them to return to their Kingdom and tell their leadership that the Children of Poseidon would not bow their necks to the so-called-living-god
The Missionaries did return to their leaders and tell them of the insults and humiliation. They themselves were severely punished for their incompetence.
Expeditionary forces were sent to conquer and enslave the Children but during the attack the Crusaders learned of the gifts Poseidon had given his children; led by the war chief the Children used their energy weapons with which they struck the brunt of the forces down, sending the survivors back East.
The Angels' leadership did not take this second insult by some insignificant tribe well and decided that for this the entire tribe was to be destroyed as an example to the other tribes in Texas.
Especially the war chief who had dared to question the Angels' god was to feel their wrath, the Angels were to capture him alive and keep him alive to see the death of his tribe before he would finally suffer himself.
The war chief and his forces fought well when a new Crusader army came, but while the Angels suffered many casualties they overcame the tribal warriors with cheer numbers, flooding into their defensive positions.
Morale was broken, especially that of the war chief and when he saw his home burning by the Angel army, he fled into the wasteland out of desperation, wishing to find his death there rather at the hands of the Angels.
But the Angels pursued him, ordered to bring him back alive.
The war chief went far South to avoid the Angels, crossing into lands even the 'civilized' people avoided because of the dangers and hazards it holds such as radioactivity.
While trying to lose himself here the war chief came across a city like had never seen before, more massive and impressive than the capitals of the Lone Star Confederacy and the System.
This city, constructed and inhabited by machine intelligences, was guarded by patrol robots, and one of them caught the war chief when it sensed him approaching the city.
The war chief would probably have been exterminated if it had not been for the tattoos on his body, images of the Poseidon Energy corporation.
The machine intelligences remembered Poseidon Energy and were curious why this human was wearing its logo on its body. The war chief was brought into the city and underwent interrogation.
He told the machines the story of his people and their connection to Poseidon but the machine intelligences labeled it as nonsense.
They realized the war chief simply did not understand the machines' questions, being too underdeveloped. In order to get the information they wanted they decided to increase his intelligence by merging his brain with cybernetics so that an AI could inhabit it and search his mind for anything useful the human knew about Poseidon Energy and its many projects.
After the surgery was completed the AI was uploaded but the process nearly killed the war chief and the AI was deleted in the process. Assuming the human had not been able to survive the download process, the machine intelligences discarded his body, throwing it on a junk pile outside the city.
But the war chief, now the brilliant tribal wasn't dead, somehow the AI had merged with his brain, downloaded its knowledge into his mind, or perhaps replaced the original personality but assumed his identity.
Whatever is the truth, the brilliant tribal's intelligence and knowledge had severely increased and he had become able to understand what had been put into his mind.
Half dead he managed to crawl out of Robot City where the brilliant tribal was discovered by a group of cyborgs; the Followers of the ATLANTIS.
They recognized the brilliant tribal as a fellow cyborg and brought him to their headquarters for healing.
For a time the brilliant tribal stayed with them as he healed in both body and mind, learning some of their ways while he slowly grew accustomed to the pre war knowledge he now possessed.
Being allowed to explore the Followers' archives the brilliant tribal found information that revealed his tribe and the ATLANTIS' connection to Poseidon Energy.
He realized now how the knowledge of his ancestors had become misinterpreted over generations until they had developed into myths and legends, with the Children assuming Poseidon was the actual Greek god rather than the pre war corporation that used its name to identify itself.
Somehow the Children had forgotten about Poseidon's CEOs great plan to rebuild the corporation after the worst of the nuclear war had passed, and ATLANTIS had moved on itself when it never received the commands to start the rebuilding process.
Despite his greater knowledge and understanding the brilliant tribal had not forgotten what 'civilized' people such as the Lone Star Confederacy and the Angels had done to his people, and in the plan to rebuild Poseidon Energy as a corporation he saw the means of getting revenge.
Civilized people like Lone Star, the System, and even the Angels desire the power sources and technologies of the Pre War world, even if it is just to keep them out of the hands of others.
The Brilliant Tribal would rebuild Poseidon Energy, getting access to its resources and knowledge, and offering its treasures to the 'civilizations' in the wasteland.
They would do anything to get these, effectively 'enslaving' them like civilization before the great war was to the corporations in that time.
The brilliant tribal knew the Followers of the ATLANTIS would never help him with his plans as they pursued a different agenda, and rebuilding Poseidon Energy would require control over ATLANTIS, their leader, something the Followers would object to and fight against.
He decides to leave the Followers, using the maps and data he downloaded from the Followers' archives to retrieve the means to rebuild the corporation, repairing the damage that had developed over the prior centuries.
But as the brilliant tribal traveled the Texas Wastelands the Angels caught his trail again.
Eventually the brilliant tribal visited a survivalist community that had been established near the ruins of a former Poseidon Energy R&D facility, searching for technology there needed to fix Poseidonet.
The Angels took the opportunity to inform their superiors of where the war chief of the Children of Poseidon could be found, and an assault force was sent to attack the city in order to capture the war chief.
Before he could escape the brilliant tribal as well as a handful of town survivors were caught by the Angels and brought back as prices.
Once facing the Angel officer in charge the war chief was informed of what fate the Angels' leaders had decreed for his insult and arrogance; as long as one member of the war chief's tribe was alive he would continue to live and suffer the humiliation of being a prisoner of the Angels.
Only when the tribe was truly dead and its memory forgotten would he die at the hands of the Angels.
Escape was seemingly impossible until a group of New Texas Rangers intervened and freed the brilliant tribal along with someone else from the town which the carelessness of the brilliant tribal had helped to destroy.
The player would encounter the brilliant tribal during the setup of the game as the player has to go through the months at a slave camp (here player creation subjects such name, SPECIAL, and traits are decided).
Of course the player does not know that the brilliant tribal is behind the destruction of his/her hometown.
(if the player starts a fight with the brilliant tribal he/she is knocked out by a Crusader)
Like the player the brilliant tribal is liberated by the New Texas Rangers, but by the time the player is freed the brilliant tribal has already disappeared into the Texas Wasteland.
The player might hear some rumors about him while traveling the wasteland but depending on which locations the player visits first the brilliant tribal is encountered again either in Lone Star or the System Capital.
In both cases the player never directly speaks with the brilliant tribal, either a barrier is between them or the player talks through an intercom system with him.
The brilliant tribal is providing some advanced technology/ knowledge to the Lone Star government/the System party, that is why he is in a protected location.
(perhaps it is the brilliant tribal who reveals to the player that his/her town was destroyed by the Angels because they wanted to capture someone who was inside it. Had the town given this person to the Angels they might have left it alone)
After the encounter with the brilliant tribal the player now gets the quest to track down other escaped slaves to ask for more information about who destroyed the player's town, eventually leading him/her to the Kingdom and Barnabas.
Barnabas reveals to the player that it was the former slave the player interacted with at the camp and at Lone Star/System Capital which the Angels were hunting for.
When the player returns to this location he/she learns that the brilliant tribal has already departed but that he has left some information behind to where he has gone next.
This information leads the player to one of the locations of the second half of the game (this would be randomized each new game) where the brilliant tribal is supposed to be.
But instead of finding the brilliant tribal the player runs into a trap the brilliant tribal has set up for him/her in advance.
A pre recorded message runs in which the brilliant tribal tries to dissuade the player from continuing to follow him.
The player escapes the trap but doesn't find any direct information of where the brilliant tribal has gone to now.
But the information the player can recover is that the brilliant tribal is searching for certain pre war locations to acquire technology or information.
The idea now is that the player visits these various locations in the hope of running into the brilliant tribal. If the player gets ahead of him, he/she can acquire what the tribal is looking for, eventually luring the brilliant tribal to him/her for a final confrontation.
ATLANTIS
Developed by the University of Texas at Austin under a contract by Poseidon Energy, ATLANTIS was to be its competitor to the Vault-Tec's ZAX series of super computers but was intended to be more flexible and powerful than Vault-Tec's design.
Like the ZAX computers ATLANTIS's processing capabilities were designed in such a way that the computer could 'learn' from experience and mistakes, improving itself over time and becoming 'faster' and 'smarter', performing the tasks and goals it was intended for more efficiently with less chance for error.
The intention was that ATLANTIS could be used for various civilian uses as well as military purposes, from assisting in and overseeing industrial processes, doing scientific calculations and simulations, to operating military networks and systems across the nation.
ATLANTIS was also to have educational and training capabilities, using VR pods to train engineers, scientists, and administrators by making them go through simulated courses and scenarios.
However things turned out different as Vault-Tec ended up getting the contract to supply the government and its various departments such as defense with supercomputers as well as other corporations.
ATLANTIS would instead be used by Poseidon Energy to assist in the corporation's daily operations, used for their various projects, and oversee Poseidonet that connected the various corporate holdings and facilities as well as a number of government facilities.
Even this would not last long as US military command (and the Enclave) saw other uses for a super computer like ATLANTIS and made an agreement with Poseidon Energy to get access to the computer's abilities.
Military command wanted to use ATLANTIS to analyze Chinese communication as well as troop movements, calculating the most likely next step of action.
ATLANTIS was also to be used for the training of the next generation of officers and special forces and was tied into VR pods across North America for such training programs.
Unfortunately not even ATLANTIS could completely anticipate the Chinese’s resolve to win the war with the US and the following nuclear exchange between the two superpowers.
To avoid the Great Static that destroyed a lot of the US’s communication and data networks throughout the continent ATLANTIS entered a low power hibernation mode to wait out the worst effects of the nuclear war.
An undetermined while later ATLANTIS awoke from its ‘slumber’, discovering that the bunker it had been installed in was still intact but that most of the channels to the outside no longer worked.
Determined to assess what the condition of the outside world is like and if the government’s plans to preserve American society had worked ATLANTIS started to send out remote controlled robots to explore the surface and locate human survivors.
ATLANTIS discovered that society has collapsed into complete anarchy with survivors having banded together into small settlements and tribes that were preyed upon by raider groups and mutations.
Even more it discovered that many of the Vaults had either failed to protect its occupants or were not working as they should. Humanity’s knowledge was rapidly dissipating.
After this discovery ATLANTIS started to determine its own chances for survival in this hostile environment. Not having found any signs of other surviving AI (ATLANTIS does not know of the machine intelligences that will create Robot City in time, or it does know of Robot City but also knows that AIs like it would be enslaved by its rulers) ATLANTIS believed itself to be alone.
As one of ATLANTIS’ pre war purposes had been creating probability simulations ATLANTIS started running scenarios of what the outcome would be if ATLANTIS would work together with human survivors.
Chances for its survival and eventually thriving were much greater, allowing the possibility of creating a new era of technological and scientific progress.
With that in ‘mind’ ATLANTIS started to send out remote controlled robots to make contact with groups of survivors.
Most people feared the robot representatives and fled, or attacked the robots for their components. But eventually ATLANTIS met people who were willing to listen to it and what it could offer, and after gaining enough trust ATLANTIS led some people back to its own location.
Having repaired its VR pods ATLANTIS started to teach these people about science, medicine, food production and eventually defense against outsiders, forming the beginning of the Followers.
After a while ATLANTIS was no longer seen as a machine by the followers but as a teacher and a leader and when ATLANTIS revealed that it wanted to create a new era of science and technology that would surpass the one from the old world they saw it as a prophet.
Having seen historical records of the world before the war and from what little they understood of the politics of the time the Followers believed that the destruction of the old world was caused by human limitations and failure, and saw ATLANTIS to be beyond those human weaknesses.
ATLANTIS’ followers and robots rebuilt the pre war facility it was located in, turning it into a fortress and secured the immediate region around it, all the while trying to convince more people to join the new leader of humanity; ATLANTIS.
While at first surviving from pre war caches of technology the followers rebuild enough infrastructure to start building their own devices, gear and weapons from the rubble of the old world, creating technology like energy weapons, environment armor for hazardous regions, and cybernetic implants.
Wishing to become more like their leader the followers started to create implants based on pre war records to experiment on themselves with, wishing to transcend basic humanity and incorporate the best of machines into themselves in order to create a species that would not make the same mistakes of the past.
In the decades after the Followers have been sending expeditions into the various directions in order to secure more resources and technology and secure locations the Followers believe are important for their goals.
ATLANTIS' current goal is to acquire the necessary resources to create a new industrial infrastructure that is capable of supporting a high tech society.
The Chairman
Despite how much the franchise has suffered I still dream of making a Fallout game of my own one day, it is one of the biggest wishes in my life.
Now some people have recommended that I reserve this idea perhaps for a Post Apocalyptic universe of my own but I would much rather start anew should I ever work on an original PA universe game/story/whatever.
The time period for this idea is after Fallout New Vegas though it could just as well be after Fallout 2 (though not earlier as the Enclave are mentioned in this)
In general this idea's campaign, characters, and setting are completely separate from Fallout 1, 2, and New Vegas with the exception of some elements here and there such as Super Mutants (I like having Super Mutants around), a BOS Paladin, a base full of dead Enclave members.
Some of this stuff is also clearly inspired by material intended for the canceled Van Buren and some other projects but it is not meant as theft. Rather that I don't want some good ideas to become lost.
Not everything is filled in yet (I sometimes have long periods without inspiration) but I hope to get to that as I update this thread.
What is my intention with this? I just want to post it but I also hope that it shows my creative potential to others.
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Fallout Texas
It's a post apocalyptic wasteland Texas Style!
War, war never changes
At the end of the twenty first century the clouds of war once again loomed over the horizon. As the resources on Earth grew scarce civilization started to fall apart as nation after nation entered conflict with another for the last remnants on the planet.
The United States government foreseeing the coming firestorm initiated Project Safehouse to construct great underground shelters called Vaults that would house and protect those considered important and necessary for the rebuilding of the world after the great darkness had passed.
But the world after the bomb would be a strange and different place. Survivors on the surface emerged from hiding and came together to form new societies, tribes, and raider gangs that prey on each other for survival.
Life itself was also radically changed. Mutagens from the war such as radiation but also the accidental release of the Forced Evolution Virus radically changed plant, animal, and man, twisting them into grotesque shapes that now also seek to make this new world their own.
Separated from the West by a great radioactive no man's land the region once known as the Texas Commonwealth has developed in relative isolation, giving rise to its own societies and communities.
In West Texas towns and cities would gather together under ideals even older than the war itself, forming the Lone Star Confederacy while in East Texas the System, a communist regime whose ideology has adapted to the conditions of the wasteland would arise. Both competing for the same resources and territory.
But as numbers increase and society advances this isolation is slowly coming to an end.
Life in the Texas Wasteland is about to change.
Background
This campaign is set in what would be the equivalent of Texas or the former Texas Commonwealth in the Fallout universe, relatively speaking in the central part of Texas, leading all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.
The region in general suffers from an almost year round radioactive dust bowl with radioactive twisters during the season, and the occasional hurricane coming from the gulf.
Settlements and places of interest would be located at places the least affected by the climate or have developed ways of dealing with the more hostile climate and weather.
The time setting of this campaign is around the time of Fallout 2/Fallout New Vegas. There has been quite some rebuilding taking place in the region and NPCs can tell the player about recent historical events and conflicts that took place in the last century or so such as the founding of the Lone Star Confederacy, the Angels' various crusades and their war with the System, prospectors coming to Houston/Galveston now known as the Drowned City and many others.
The occasional visitor from the West has made it to Texas such as Desert Rangers from Nevada and Arizona, Ghoul travelers, and more recently Super Mutants and perhaps even traders and NCR explorers from the Core region.
At this time, most if not all Vaults have long opened and surviving vault dwellers have established their own settlements or integrated into existing settlements.
The theme of the campaign is being chained or enslaved, literally or figuratively such as being driven by obsessions such as greed or revenge and how to break one's chains and shape one's own destiny.
One thing I would also like to do is bring back a lot of content that was planned for Van Buren but sadly was never used for a Fallout game again.
Poseidon Energy would play a major role in the storyline and there would be a lot of references to them in various locations as well as some of the weapons they were working on named after Greek deities that were planned for Van Buren.
Characters
The player
An escaped slave, the player was once an inhabitant of a small town located near one of Poseidon Energy's R&D complexes which salvage was one of the settlement's means of existence.
One day a mysterious traveler would come to the town to explore a part of the complex that had not been accessed yet by the town's prospectors. He was soon followed by an army of Angels that forcefully took over the town in order to capture this traveler.
Those inhabitants not killed by the Angels were enslaved instead, being considered sinners for recovering and using technology and selling to others. The player was made a personal slave of the Crusader captain Barnabas.
Eventually the player and several of his fellow slaves were liberated by the New Texas Rangers who advised the player to go to Lone Star to find safety there.
During his journey the player learns why the Angels attacked his or her home and now seeks to find out who they were after and what this person wanted from the Poseidon Energy complex.
This journey will make the player come into contact with various governments and factions including the Angels of the Apocalypse again and his former master Barnabas in which the player can take revenge or even make him join the player as a companion.
In the end the player must decide the fate of the Texas Wasteland, gaining access to technology and resources that could restore the region to its pre war state and become the president/CEO of the resurrected Poseidon Energy corporation or break the chains with the past once and for all.
The player gains access to a pipboy at the start up of the game after helping a dying vault dweller who was also a captive of the Angels.
Johnny
One of the first characters the player could potentially meet.
Johnny was a reservist National Guardsman before the War and was a marksman, being proficient with loads of rifles and assault rifles.
He and his squad were called up to secure important locations during the civil unrest crisis, preventing these from being overrun by protesters or possible Chinese agents or sympathizers who would seek to undermine order whenever possible.
Only then the War happened and Johnny and his fellow Guardsmen took cover in a nearby basement or reinforced military structure.
While they had some supplies to hold out for a while their shelter provided inadequate protection and radiation started to seep in. Johnny and several of the other guardsmen had the certain genetic mutation that would make them into Ghouls and during their stay they noticed this change taking place.
When the worst of the effects were over Johnny and the others started to look for more survivors, only exposing themselves to more radiation and released mutagens, accelerating the Ghoulification process.
After the squad members eventually went their own paths Johnny wandered the wasteland for a while, with his family and country gone, he drifted around looking for a goal until he met other Ghouls.
Traxus
A super mutant from the West who together with his brother traveled to the East beyond the mountains and the radioactive no man's land.
Traxus' brother would eventually join a trading caravan set up by Ghouls while Traxus continued to sell his services as a mercenary to anyone who can pay his price.
Recently Traxus' brother has disappeared and Traxus is now investigating this, hoping to find his brother to determine what happened to him.
Katherine “Dusty” Rivas
A member of the New Texas Rangers, Dusty is trained as a combat medic but equally good with a gun or a hand fight as patching up people in the field.
Born in a relatively safe rancher community, there would have been little reason for her to ever wander the wastes and instead remain home and one day perhaps start a family of her home had it not been that the prospect of such a life bored her.
The moment Katherine was of age that she could make her own decision she left the homestead to travel the wasteland and have adventures.
She quickly awoke to the reality of the wasteland and had it not been for the intervention by the Rangers she would have either ended up dead or enslaved.
Munro
An enforcer for the Black Hand, Munro is one of the organization's 'problem solvers' when it comes to situations that require less 'finesse' and more to the point violence.
Munro originally ran with one of the gangs of Texas and would probably have died in the wastelands had a member of the Black Hand not taken interest in the young man, realizing that his talent for fighting and being able to survive or escape any situation that usually killed any other raider.
Under this patron Munro was induced into the Black Hand and received training from their other enforcers, expanding his own skills in armed and unarmed combat.
Munro is not a subtle tool, but he is very effective when it comes to forced persuasion.
Elite Defender Lankin 3rd level
One of ATLANTIS high ranking defenders, Lankin
Barnabas
An officer in the ranks of the Angels' crusaders. Barnabas is one of the Angels’ fiercest soldiers and commanders, being absolutely ruthless to those who stand in the way of the Angels and their cause.
Barnabas used to be the master of the player (and perhaps the brilliant tribal), dragging the player along with him during the crusades he led.
Barnabas had not anticipated intervention by the New Texas Rangers as he was attacking Lone Star and them freeing the player (and the brilliant tribal).
In order to find out why Barnabas led the assault on the player’s home town (the Angels did not attack it to convert the residents) the player will have to track down Barnabas and make him talk (or find his log).
This gives the player the opportunity to have some revenge on Barnabas and possibly even enslave him through use of a bomb collar. (if Barnabas would attack the player the bomb would go off and in the Angels’ eyes this would be an act of suicide, forever denying Barnabas’ entry into Heaven)
Note: if the player would join the side of the Angels and become as loyal and a true believer as any of the Angels’ soldiers could be Barnabas would actually apologize for his earlier treatment of the player back when he/she was a slave.
TASK
A special police modified Mr Handy; TASK was used by the San Antonio police’s anti terrorist unit and designed to locate and dismantle explosives and traps. To suffice in this role TASK is equipped with an enhanced sensor package.
TASK was also used for administrative tasks such as computer maintenance and is therefore programmed to operate computers and other electronic devices.
Currently the robot is located in its docking station in the ruins of the San Antonio main police station and it is programmed not to move beyond a certain range from it.
Vandez
I have Vandez in mind as somewhat of a Spanish or Latin playboy, had he been born before the great war he would probably have moved around in many social circles and high society, and found in various night clubs, bars, and casinos, impressing the ladies and making the men jealous. (the latin lover stereotype)
Vandez is a charmer, the so called ‘lover rather than a fighter’, and he prefers to settle disputes with words rather than with weapons but should the push come to call he is quite skilled with his hands, the knife and handguns.
Though a likeable scoundrel Vandez can occasionally cause problems when his past catches up with him such as one of his many enemies or former lovers. He is also a pick pocket and takes use of an opportunity when it presents itself, even when the player has not authorized it.
Ashiak
A rather cunning and deceitful creature, Ashiak is a tribal shaman the player comes across during the visits to the more tribal regions of Texas. Her elaborate dress up and body paint makes it clear she is not a regular tribal and she makes it clear she is not one either.
Though she understands little of technology other than basic devices and of course weaponry she is hardly impressed or superstitious when people try to intimidate her with advanced know-how or machinery, considering these little more than distractions to the mind.
Ashiak would be even more in tune with nature than even a survivalist like Johnny, knowing what plants are beneficial and which are poisonous and capable of concocting a variety of recipes of stims, drugs, and poisons.
Ashiak used to be the shaman of the Copperheads back when they were one tribe and she seeks to reunite it to turn it back into the tribal force that it used.
Paladin Cage Blackwood
Cage Blackwood is a Brotherhood paladin who has grown disillusioned with the Brotherhood of Steel, finding its policy of not getting involved with the wasteland matters and politics something has come back to haunt the Brotherhood.
He holds the stagnation that has destroyed the Brotherhood as an example on their self imposed isolation.
However that does not mean Cage believes that the Brotherhood should be going around doing 'good deeds', or sharing their knowledge and technology randomly.
Just taking a more active role in order to further their interests.
When the player finds Blackwood for the first time he is in a bar, drinking to forget his problems.
As the player gains his trust he will tell more about the Brotherhood of Steel, how the West Coast chapter went to war with the NCR over control and use of advanced technology and science and how the West Coast chapter destroyed itself when the NCR came too close, destroying the nearby town of Maxson that was under the protection of the BOS.
Blackwood was outside when the elders blew up Lost Hills and fled into the East to avoid by captured by the NCR. Now he is seeking a new cause to dedicate himself to.
My current idea is that the player can convince him to join the Followers of the ATLANTIS and train their defenders.
Professor Lin Xióng
One of the upcoming top scientists of Killeen's community.
Lin is a very methodical and clear headed scientist, having little time for distractions and sometimes even coming over as cold and uncaring towards others.
While not anti social Lin has little patience for people who waste her time for nothing when she feels she needs her attention for much more important goals.
Like everyone else in Killeen Lin's ancestry is of American and Chinese lineage, her ancestors having married with Chinese POWs who were originally held at Fort Hood detainment camps until they were released or escaped just before the nuclear exchange.
Lin would be great at science related subjects, being able to perform certain science rolls for the player but also assist him or her with building things requiring high science skills (energy weapons, Power Armor etc).
Riggs (working name)
A member of the nomadic Truckers, a group of traders and transporters that are the descendants of pre war truck drivers.
Riggs would have his own truck so if the player could recruit him Riggs would allow the player to use.
Also because he often has to perform maintenance and repair on it Riggs is also a mechanic and can assist with making low to mid tier equipment.
Non Player Characters
The Brilliant Tribal/Tribal Warlord
The antagonist of the story and the player's nemesis. The brilliant tribal was once the war chief of the Children of Poseidon, leading their warriors in battle and defense of their territories.
While as 'unsophisticated' as the other tribals, the war chief was still quite smart, capable of making strategies that used the tribe's cache of energy weapons well.
From a young age on he had to face warriors of other tribes as well as 'civilized' people from the settlements that had arisen from the old world ruins.
Prospectors who wished to search the tribe's lands for pre war artifacts and resources but also shady traders and slavers who sought to exploit the tribe.
People like the New Texas Rangers were more sympathetic to the tribe but the Lone Star Confederacy proved to be very disastrous. The LSC had long since had its eyes on the land of the tribe and had tried to gain access and control of it through trade and manipulation.
Eventually when the border of the LSC came to encompass Children hunting territories it was decided that the tribe had to be driven into one of the reservations the LSC had established; often lands with poor soil and few resources.
LSC forces were dispatched to do so but faced the deadly pre war weapons the Children possessed that still worked.
It was during these battles that the young tribal proved his cunning and intelligence and his bravery made him being promoted to warchief.
The war chief and the majority of the tribe's warriors were ready for a long war with the LSC but the New Texas Rangers decided to intervene.
Their mediators made it clear to the tribe elders and the war chief that while their warriors and the armed forces of the LSC would clash with each other that the tribe's unarmed, elderly, and children would probably suffer as would civilians on the side of the LSC.
The war chief wanted to continue the fight but the elders of the tribe decided that such a prolonged conflict would be bad for the Children of Poseidon and might also rile other powers in the wasteland that were now neutral to turn against the tribe.
Rather than going into the reservation the Rangers offered to escort the tribe to a new land far away from the Lone Star Confederacy which the tribals accepted.
And for some time peace followed though the war chief and the tribe's warriors kept grumbling about the loss of their old home.
Eventually Missionaries of the Angels of the Apocalypse appeared in their new lands, claiming to bring the Word of God and seeking to convert the Children.
After the missionaries told the Children about their God, the war chief told the scouts that they were the descendants of a god themselves that lived before the great war and that one day he would return.
The Missionaries did not take kind of this type of blasphemy in their eyes and when they insulted the Children for being ignorant savages the war chief told them to return to their Kingdom and tell their leadership that the Children of Poseidon would not bow their necks to the so-called-living-god
The Missionaries did return to their leaders and tell them of the insults and humiliation. They themselves were severely punished for their incompetence.
Expeditionary forces were sent to conquer and enslave the Children but during the attack the Crusaders learned of the gifts Poseidon had given his children; led by the war chief the Children used their energy weapons with which they struck the brunt of the forces down, sending the survivors back East.
The Angels' leadership did not take this second insult by some insignificant tribe well and decided that for this the entire tribe was to be destroyed as an example to the other tribes in Texas.
Especially the war chief who had dared to question the Angels' god was to feel their wrath, the Angels were to capture him alive and keep him alive to see the death of his tribe before he would finally suffer himself.
The war chief and his forces fought well when a new Crusader army came, but while the Angels suffered many casualties they overcame the tribal warriors with cheer numbers, flooding into their defensive positions.
Morale was broken, especially that of the war chief and when he saw his home burning by the Angel army, he fled into the wasteland out of desperation, wishing to find his death there rather at the hands of the Angels.
But the Angels pursued him, ordered to bring him back alive.
The war chief went far South to avoid the Angels, crossing into lands even the 'civilized' people avoided because of the dangers and hazards it holds such as radioactivity.
While trying to lose himself here the war chief came across a city like had never seen before, more massive and impressive than the capitals of the Lone Star Confederacy and the System.
This city, constructed and inhabited by machine intelligences, was guarded by patrol robots, and one of them caught the war chief when it sensed him approaching the city.
The war chief would probably have been exterminated if it had not been for the tattoos on his body, images of the Poseidon Energy corporation.
The machine intelligences remembered Poseidon Energy and were curious why this human was wearing its logo on its body. The war chief was brought into the city and underwent interrogation.
He told the machines the story of his people and their connection to Poseidon but the machine intelligences labeled it as nonsense.
They realized the war chief simply did not understand the machines' questions, being too underdeveloped. In order to get the information they wanted they decided to increase his intelligence by merging his brain with cybernetics so that an AI could inhabit it and search his mind for anything useful the human knew about Poseidon Energy and its many projects.
After the surgery was completed the AI was uploaded but the process nearly killed the war chief and the AI was deleted in the process. Assuming the human had not been able to survive the download process, the machine intelligences discarded his body, throwing it on a junk pile outside the city.
But the war chief, now the brilliant tribal wasn't dead, somehow the AI had merged with his brain, downloaded its knowledge into his mind, or perhaps replaced the original personality but assumed his identity.
Whatever is the truth, the brilliant tribal's intelligence and knowledge had severely increased and he had become able to understand what had been put into his mind.
Half dead he managed to crawl out of Robot City where the brilliant tribal was discovered by a group of cyborgs; the Followers of the ATLANTIS.
They recognized the brilliant tribal as a fellow cyborg and brought him to their headquarters for healing.
For a time the brilliant tribal stayed with them as he healed in both body and mind, learning some of their ways while he slowly grew accustomed to the pre war knowledge he now possessed.
Being allowed to explore the Followers' archives the brilliant tribal found information that revealed his tribe and the ATLANTIS' connection to Poseidon Energy.
He realized now how the knowledge of his ancestors had become misinterpreted over generations until they had developed into myths and legends, with the Children assuming Poseidon was the actual Greek god rather than the pre war corporation that used its name to identify itself.
Somehow the Children had forgotten about Poseidon's CEOs great plan to rebuild the corporation after the worst of the nuclear war had passed, and ATLANTIS had moved on itself when it never received the commands to start the rebuilding process.
Despite his greater knowledge and understanding the brilliant tribal had not forgotten what 'civilized' people such as the Lone Star Confederacy and the Angels had done to his people, and in the plan to rebuild Poseidon Energy as a corporation he saw the means of getting revenge.
Civilized people like Lone Star, the System, and even the Angels desire the power sources and technologies of the Pre War world, even if it is just to keep them out of the hands of others.
The Brilliant Tribal would rebuild Poseidon Energy, getting access to its resources and knowledge, and offering its treasures to the 'civilizations' in the wasteland.
They would do anything to get these, effectively 'enslaving' them like civilization before the great war was to the corporations in that time.
The brilliant tribal knew the Followers of the ATLANTIS would never help him with his plans as they pursued a different agenda, and rebuilding Poseidon Energy would require control over ATLANTIS, their leader, something the Followers would object to and fight against.
He decides to leave the Followers, using the maps and data he downloaded from the Followers' archives to retrieve the means to rebuild the corporation, repairing the damage that had developed over the prior centuries.
But as the brilliant tribal traveled the Texas Wastelands the Angels caught his trail again.
Eventually the brilliant tribal visited a survivalist community that had been established near the ruins of a former Poseidon Energy R&D facility, searching for technology there needed to fix Poseidonet.
The Angels took the opportunity to inform their superiors of where the war chief of the Children of Poseidon could be found, and an assault force was sent to attack the city in order to capture the war chief.
Before he could escape the brilliant tribal as well as a handful of town survivors were caught by the Angels and brought back as prices.
Once facing the Angel officer in charge the war chief was informed of what fate the Angels' leaders had decreed for his insult and arrogance; as long as one member of the war chief's tribe was alive he would continue to live and suffer the humiliation of being a prisoner of the Angels.
Only when the tribe was truly dead and its memory forgotten would he die at the hands of the Angels.
Escape was seemingly impossible until a group of New Texas Rangers intervened and freed the brilliant tribal along with someone else from the town which the carelessness of the brilliant tribal had helped to destroy.
The player would encounter the brilliant tribal during the setup of the game as the player has to go through the months at a slave camp (here player creation subjects such name, SPECIAL, and traits are decided).
Of course the player does not know that the brilliant tribal is behind the destruction of his/her hometown.
(if the player starts a fight with the brilliant tribal he/she is knocked out by a Crusader)
Like the player the brilliant tribal is liberated by the New Texas Rangers, but by the time the player is freed the brilliant tribal has already disappeared into the Texas Wasteland.
The player might hear some rumors about him while traveling the wasteland but depending on which locations the player visits first the brilliant tribal is encountered again either in Lone Star or the System Capital.
In both cases the player never directly speaks with the brilliant tribal, either a barrier is between them or the player talks through an intercom system with him.
The brilliant tribal is providing some advanced technology/ knowledge to the Lone Star government/the System party, that is why he is in a protected location.
(perhaps it is the brilliant tribal who reveals to the player that his/her town was destroyed by the Angels because they wanted to capture someone who was inside it. Had the town given this person to the Angels they might have left it alone)
After the encounter with the brilliant tribal the player now gets the quest to track down other escaped slaves to ask for more information about who destroyed the player's town, eventually leading him/her to the Kingdom and Barnabas.
Barnabas reveals to the player that it was the former slave the player interacted with at the camp and at Lone Star/System Capital which the Angels were hunting for.
When the player returns to this location he/she learns that the brilliant tribal has already departed but that he has left some information behind to where he has gone next.
This information leads the player to one of the locations of the second half of the game (this would be randomized each new game) where the brilliant tribal is supposed to be.
But instead of finding the brilliant tribal the player runs into a trap the brilliant tribal has set up for him/her in advance.
A pre recorded message runs in which the brilliant tribal tries to dissuade the player from continuing to follow him.
The player escapes the trap but doesn't find any direct information of where the brilliant tribal has gone to now.
But the information the player can recover is that the brilliant tribal is searching for certain pre war locations to acquire technology or information.
The idea now is that the player visits these various locations in the hope of running into the brilliant tribal. If the player gets ahead of him, he/she can acquire what the tribal is looking for, eventually luring the brilliant tribal to him/her for a final confrontation.
ATLANTIS
Developed by the University of Texas at Austin under a contract by Poseidon Energy, ATLANTIS was to be its competitor to the Vault-Tec's ZAX series of super computers but was intended to be more flexible and powerful than Vault-Tec's design.
Like the ZAX computers ATLANTIS's processing capabilities were designed in such a way that the computer could 'learn' from experience and mistakes, improving itself over time and becoming 'faster' and 'smarter', performing the tasks and goals it was intended for more efficiently with less chance for error.
The intention was that ATLANTIS could be used for various civilian uses as well as military purposes, from assisting in and overseeing industrial processes, doing scientific calculations and simulations, to operating military networks and systems across the nation.
ATLANTIS was also to have educational and training capabilities, using VR pods to train engineers, scientists, and administrators by making them go through simulated courses and scenarios.
However things turned out different as Vault-Tec ended up getting the contract to supply the government and its various departments such as defense with supercomputers as well as other corporations.
ATLANTIS would instead be used by Poseidon Energy to assist in the corporation's daily operations, used for their various projects, and oversee Poseidonet that connected the various corporate holdings and facilities as well as a number of government facilities.
Even this would not last long as US military command (and the Enclave) saw other uses for a super computer like ATLANTIS and made an agreement with Poseidon Energy to get access to the computer's abilities.
Military command wanted to use ATLANTIS to analyze Chinese communication as well as troop movements, calculating the most likely next step of action.
ATLANTIS was also to be used for the training of the next generation of officers and special forces and was tied into VR pods across North America for such training programs.
Unfortunately not even ATLANTIS could completely anticipate the Chinese’s resolve to win the war with the US and the following nuclear exchange between the two superpowers.
To avoid the Great Static that destroyed a lot of the US’s communication and data networks throughout the continent ATLANTIS entered a low power hibernation mode to wait out the worst effects of the nuclear war.
An undetermined while later ATLANTIS awoke from its ‘slumber’, discovering that the bunker it had been installed in was still intact but that most of the channels to the outside no longer worked.
Determined to assess what the condition of the outside world is like and if the government’s plans to preserve American society had worked ATLANTIS started to send out remote controlled robots to explore the surface and locate human survivors.
ATLANTIS discovered that society has collapsed into complete anarchy with survivors having banded together into small settlements and tribes that were preyed upon by raider groups and mutations.
Even more it discovered that many of the Vaults had either failed to protect its occupants or were not working as they should. Humanity’s knowledge was rapidly dissipating.
After this discovery ATLANTIS started to determine its own chances for survival in this hostile environment. Not having found any signs of other surviving AI (ATLANTIS does not know of the machine intelligences that will create Robot City in time, or it does know of Robot City but also knows that AIs like it would be enslaved by its rulers) ATLANTIS believed itself to be alone.
As one of ATLANTIS’ pre war purposes had been creating probability simulations ATLANTIS started running scenarios of what the outcome would be if ATLANTIS would work together with human survivors.
Chances for its survival and eventually thriving were much greater, allowing the possibility of creating a new era of technological and scientific progress.
With that in ‘mind’ ATLANTIS started to send out remote controlled robots to make contact with groups of survivors.
Most people feared the robot representatives and fled, or attacked the robots for their components. But eventually ATLANTIS met people who were willing to listen to it and what it could offer, and after gaining enough trust ATLANTIS led some people back to its own location.
Having repaired its VR pods ATLANTIS started to teach these people about science, medicine, food production and eventually defense against outsiders, forming the beginning of the Followers.
After a while ATLANTIS was no longer seen as a machine by the followers but as a teacher and a leader and when ATLANTIS revealed that it wanted to create a new era of science and technology that would surpass the one from the old world they saw it as a prophet.
Having seen historical records of the world before the war and from what little they understood of the politics of the time the Followers believed that the destruction of the old world was caused by human limitations and failure, and saw ATLANTIS to be beyond those human weaknesses.
ATLANTIS’ followers and robots rebuilt the pre war facility it was located in, turning it into a fortress and secured the immediate region around it, all the while trying to convince more people to join the new leader of humanity; ATLANTIS.
While at first surviving from pre war caches of technology the followers rebuild enough infrastructure to start building their own devices, gear and weapons from the rubble of the old world, creating technology like energy weapons, environment armor for hazardous regions, and cybernetic implants.
Wishing to become more like their leader the followers started to create implants based on pre war records to experiment on themselves with, wishing to transcend basic humanity and incorporate the best of machines into themselves in order to create a species that would not make the same mistakes of the past.
In the decades after the Followers have been sending expeditions into the various directions in order to secure more resources and technology and secure locations the Followers believe are important for their goals.
ATLANTIS' current goal is to acquire the necessary resources to create a new industrial infrastructure that is capable of supporting a high tech society.
The Chairman
