Vault 71
Vault 71 was a Fallout Shelter built by Vault-Tec based in California. Its marketed purpose was, of course, to provide shelter from the nuclear apocalypse to good, honest American citizens. But its true purpose was to observe how people would deal with a slowing dwindling ration of food. Construction began on July 19th, 1996 and was completed on October 8th, 2003. When the war came, the Vault's door was closed, and the experiment began. In the beginning, food was plentiful for all. But on 2nd January 2013, the Overseer, as he had been told to, began to decrease the size of the dwellers' food rations. He did this every month starting from April 2013, and soon, he began to shrink it more and more.
Then, in September 2014, a woman, Judith Parsons, died of starvation in her room. This made some dwellers begin to question the Overseer. Then only two months later another three died. This made some of the dwellers form an unofficial faction opposing the Overseer. He then began to selectively eliminate certain dwellers' rations entirely. As their friends and family died, the remaining dwellers were pushed to the brink. Then, as the Vault's population dropped below 900 in January 2016, the vault dwellers overthrew and killed the Overseer. They restored the remaining dwellers' rations and began to use the Vault as how it had been marketed, a safe, secure shelter from the horrors of the nuclear devastation. They continued to live isolated from the rest of the post-apocalyptic remains of Northern America for a long while.
Later History[edit | edit source]
In 2030, scouts returning from the Wasteland reported groups of tall, green creatures resembling humans. The Vault Overseer then ordered the procuring of weapons should any of these creatures come too close to the Vault. Two months later, a group of Super Mutants raided the Vault, killing 300 and taking the rest to the V.A.Ts in the Mariposa Military Base. There were a few who were outside the Vault at the time, but when they returned, they were devastated to find out what had happened to their Vault, and they left, to integrate into post-holocaust society. The Vault remained abandoned for decades, until, in 2062, a new generation of former-Vault dwellers rediscovered the Vault. After some deliberation, they re-inhabited it.
The new Vault Dwellers had lived in their vault for five years until the Enclave came across their Vault in 2067. As it had some valuable, reasonably unspoiled technology in it, the Enclave raided the Vault. Although the dwellers managed to kill a few Enclave troopers, inevitably the dwellers were wiped out. The Vault was, once again, abandoned. However, within the same year, Enclave troops and scientists inhabited the Vault as an outpost and a scientific research station. They did not do much, apart from minor experimentation with FEV and testing out a few new weapons such as the Glock 88 Plasma Pistol and the Wattz 3000 Laser Rifle. The Enclave were much more involved in New Reno and the Poseidon Oil Rig, so the Enclave in Vault 71 were largely free to do what they wanted.
They began to stray from their original mission, to lead incursions into the Wasteland. When they wiped out a small tribal village close to the ruins of San Jose (a city which was close to the Vault and was on the border of the Northwest Commonwealth and the California State peninsula), the Enclave commanders put their foot down. the troopers responsible for the ordering of the massacre and the carrying out of it were shot, while the rest were either sent to the Oil Rig or the Raven Rock facility in Washington State. A prototype Plasma Pistol V2 was being tested at the time of the atrocity. When the Oil Rig was destroyed in 2116 and Richardson was killed, some Enclave deserted to the Vault. They lived in the Vault for a few years until the growing NCR came knocking in May 2078.
Any and all Enclave personnel were shot or imprisoned as war criminals, and the Vault was left alone for sometime. In 2094, the NCR came across Vault 71 for the second time during its campaign to civilize the rest of California. Interested in its technological potential, President Wendell Peterson ordered an expedition to the Vault. Initial scouting reports showed nothing out of the ordinary, just typical Vault technology and the like. however, it was observed the Vault was in good condition compared to some of the other more derelict Vaults. It was decided that a settlement would be founded in the Vault. while the settlement was reasonably isolated, as the NCR expanded further, it became a moderately sized trading post for the NCR.