Fallout: Florida , The Sunshine State's Post-Apocalyptic Wastes Options

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

Well, I never thought I'd be posting in this particular subforum before now. But with all these ideas bouncing in my head of what post-Great War Florida would look like in the Fallout universe, I have taken to jotting them down and (hopefully) making a cohesive guide to it. I don't really write fiction, so I don't think I'll be writing actual stories like you all do, but I suppose we'll see. For the time being, it's really going to be a guide of sorts, somewhat like a wiki or what textbooks would say.

This will obviously attempt to adhere to Fallout canon as much as possible. I chose Florida as the setting not only because it is my home state (though that is definitely the biggest reason) but because, from what I can tell, so little about the Southeastern United States is talked about in Fallout lore, giving me a lot more room to operate in. And, of course, it's the state I know best and would love to see the most as a setting for a Fallout game.

So here's the plan for all this:
[*] I'm going to break up each section of the guide into its own post to separate it sufficiently. This one will be the introduction to the setting.
[*] I may include some incomplete information on here for several reasons. For one, it'll be an easy repository to refer to just in case the Word doc I am using has something go screwy or that my computer messes up or whatever. Two, it can be a little taste of what's to come. Three, I just want to get down as much content as comes to me.
[*] The tentative list of sections to have here include, but are not limited to (and not necessarily in this order):

[*] General overview of the setting and how I am breaking up the parts of Florida
[*] The Bestiary
[*] The Timeline
[*] The Factions
[*] Profiles of each of the regions I am making

Some of the stuff you see will definitely be subject to change if needed to make it cohesive. I'll try to document what I change to make it clear.

And most of all, I hope you all like it and I'd like to hear whatever feedback you have. Presenting and communicating information is one of the things I enjoy most, although I'm more used to doing so for real-life content (particularly political science).

First section of the guide coming up!

The Setting - Basic Overview

While not experiencing the same level of nuclear barrage as places such as Southern California, New York, and D.C., Florida was plunged into nuclear fire just like virtually everywhere else in the world. This was especially true of the Tampa Bay Area, Orlando and its surrounding areas, and South Florida, centers of great economic and political importance in Pre-War America. Being the 3rd-most populous state in the country, the Great War extinguished far more lives than average here and left plenty more to pick up the pieces in the post-apocalyptic, anarchic wastes. The exceptional biological, geographical, and human diversity of Florida led to a far more varied impact on the former Sunshine State when the bombs fell.

Nevertheless, many settlements started to crop up in the decades just after the Great War, even in those once-densely populated cities and metropolitan areas. In time, former towns and cities were beginning to be resurrected and reclaiming their old names, and brand-new ones started to form. But post-War Florida--and the rest of what used to be the country's Gulf Commonwealth, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi--was still highly fractured. In the 22nd century, the first of many ambitious attempts was made to reunite this once-thriving landscape. While extraordinarily difficult at first, a string of successes in reunification gave birth to the Gulf Coast Union, a nation similar in concept to the future New California Republic (NCR). The so-called Great Reunification--a somewhat hyperbolic title, at least currently--started extending through Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and even some of southwestern Georgia, though it has yet to reclaim the whole of any of these former states.

The process is far from completed, however, and many other factions both big and small struggle with the Gulf Coast Union for dominance in the former Southeastern United States. Many of the conflicts take place in what used to be the Sunshine State. The Gulf Coast Union was successful in claiming virtually all of Northern Florida and has made inroads into the Central Florida wastes. Major and minor powers violently feuding with each other and with the Gulf Coast Union have made the GCU's grip on these lands somewhat tenuous, preventing any attempts at expanding into South Florida.

As of this guide, it is currently the year 2130, over a half-century since the world was irrevocably changed. To most easily understand the lands that were once called Florida, it is best to divide the area into ten distinct regions--even if the divisions are a bit crude, arbitrary, or too convenient. Each have their own set of conflicts being waged, major and minor players vying for power, and civilizations trying to carve out a life in these harsh wastes. Welcome to the Sunshine State's post-apocalyptic wastes.

The Ten Regions and Their Counties

County Map
Here's how some coasts in Florida got their nicknames, though not all are explicitly mentioned here

Though these broken-up zones are somewhat crude and arbitrary, it'll be easiest to understand post-apocalyptic Florida this way. However, major conflicts in one region can definitely spill over into another.

1) Panhandle (13): Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Holmes, Washington, Bay, Jackson, Calhoun, Gulf, Liberty, Franklin, Gadsden
2) Big Bend (8): Leon, Wakulla, Jefferson, Madison, Taylor, Lafayette, Dixie, Levy
3) North Central Florida (8): Hamilton, Suwannee, Columbia, Baker, Union, Bradford, Alachua, Gilchrist
4) The First Coast (6): Nassau, Duval, Clay, St. Johns, Putnam, Flagler
5) The Space and Treasure Coasts (7): Volusia, Seminole, Brevard, Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin, Okeechobee
6) Central Florida (8): Marion, Sumter, Lake, Orange, Polk, Osceola, Hardee, Highlands
7) The Tampa Bay Area (6): Citrus, Hernando, Pasco, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee
8) The Gold Coast (3): Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade
9) Southwest Florida (7.5): Sarasota, De Soto, Charlotte, Glades, Lee, Hendry, Collier, Monroe (mainland only)
10) The Keys (0.5): Monroe (Keys only)


Just a quick side-note: The Panhandle West/East dichotomy is one I totally made up for my own purposes. They are, as far as I know, not referred to as such in real life. It is just the Panhandle, and the real-world Panhandle doesn't necessarily include all of the counties in Big Bend.

This post has been edited by RaderOfTheLostArk: Jun 9 2020, 01:30 AM

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

I can relate Mariah's consternation over how some chems are legal and others not, like how oxycontin is legal in the US, but opium is not.

I love the cooler heads hat.

The Sunshine Wasteland is also a great name. It is like the apocalypse with added oranges.

So we got to meet Jonah Koresh. I suspect we will be seeing more of these Lifers in the future.

They have guar mounts!

I wonder what this macguffin is in Birmingham that everyone wants so badly?

Am I the only one who thinks Big Bend sounds pornographic?

Yep, governments do nonsensical, arbitrary things all the time.

I wish guar were real.

Lol, I guess it does sound a bit dirty. It's the informal name of that rough area of Florida since that is the big curve around the Gulf of Mexico.

Lots of words from our Alabama friend, and not even one “Roll Tide!”.

I love this! Having lived within about 4 hours drive of these places you are writing about all my life, it’s fun to imagine them in this universe. Also, the dissidents sound like some of the Alabama, as well as Mississippi folks I’m around on a daily basis, so it feels very realistic! Good work!

Also, I wanted to say that this chapter had a sort of cinematic quality about it that I really liked, no doubt thanks in part to the inclusion of the links to the soundtrack.

Thanks, Khajiit. Glad to know I succeeded on the realistic part. Didn't want to make just some generic Southerners. I often like playing a soundtrack in my own head for certain stories, so I thought it would be a good idea to include some here.

---------------------------------------------

Chapter 4: Subterfuge

Now that Mariah knew where the Dissidents launched attacks from and what they were looking for, she set about back into downtown Pensacola to figure out what to do next. Bertrand was not going to let her join the excursion and it might not be feasible for her to tail them the whole way. But before that could be determined, Mariah figured it was best to find out what information she could about this town of Holt. It was apparently obliterated in the Great War according to Gerald, which could make it much harder to find—and there were plenty such ruins in the wasteland. Yet if there were a couple of Pre-War factories still standing, it could make the search much easier. Since she was still new to Florida, Mariah sought out locals that could tell her what she needed to know.

Eventually, she was directed toward a cartographer in town. The cartographer had scavenged plenty of Pre-War maps of the Panhandle, which would still give a good sense of where locations still stood even though the Post-War landscape had changed so much. Somewhat surprisingly, the maps were not terribly expensive despite their age and usefulness, and they were fairly well-preserved.

But an antique map was not going to tell her everything she needed to know about the area now. After selling the map, the cartographer told Mariah how to get to the old Pensacola News-Journal building, the Pre-War local newspaper, where she may be able to find out extra information about what was there or any news coming from that direction now. The people there had been able to preserve old news stories on holotapes and terminals as well as their paper forms, which could indicate some of what to expect there.

When Mariah got to the PNJ building, an old and tired-looking woman sat at the reception desk. “Oh, hello there,” she said in a monotone voice when Mariah came up to the desk. The old lady didn’t mean to seem rude or disinterested. She clearly was just fatigued.

“Hi. I’m looking for some information on a town not far from here. I was told to come here to find out any news and such about the area. Could you tell me anything about Holt?” Mariah asked.

The old lady perked up a slight bit at the mention of the town name, but not for a cheerful reason. A little apprehension crept into her voice. “Oh, no, no, no, darling, you do NOT want to go there. Nuh-uh.”

“Why not?”

“New to the area, are you? Well, sweetie, let me just tell you right now that if you are planning go there—or even just through the road that way, good heavens—don’t go. There is nothing good that can come of that.”

“Oh? How come?”

“That place is notoriously bad news around these parts! Even GCU parties are reluctant to go around there. Sometimes it’s roving bands of raiders. Other times, it’s monsters like Sirens, Radfrogs, and Radtoads.” Sirens were mutated cicadas, obnoxious and loud insects from the Pre-War days. Mutations made them bigger and louder. It was a random chance that any you came across would be friendly or hostile, though why this was the case was anyone’s guess. Frogs and toads also sometimes (though not always) grew larger from radiation and could be vicious as well. Both could use their tongues to attack enemies, but Radfrogs also could secrete a radioactive liquid from their moist skin while Radtoads used their rough and jagged skin to cause extra bleeding. “And some people even say the place is haunted!”

Mariah wasn’t sure how seriously to take the old lady, wondering if it was just tiredness on her part or if she may have been somewhat senile. Maybe both. But she refrained from openly questioning her on those counts. “So, people don’t go by there often?”

“Not if they know what’s good for them! Traders usually take the old I-10 instead of Route 90 because of the dangers. Tends to be busier and better guarded. Just stay from Holt, young woman! It’s bad business!”

“For heaven’s sake, you’re going to give yourself a stroke, Hazel!” A younger man, though not much more so than Hazel, came up to the desk from behind. “Stop working yourself up! Go get yourself some sleep.” The man gently ushered Hazel to a room in the back that had beds in it. It seemed to be an establishment that the proprietors also lived in. He came back to the desk to talk to Mariah. “Sorry about that, ma’am. Ms. Hazel has had a lot of, uh, personal things going on. Anyway, I heard you say you were looking for information on Holt, correct?”

“Yeah. Is there anything you can tell me? Any news? Anything even from the past that might help?”

“Well, it isn’t often that people want to go directly to Holt. While it’s in the GCU, it has never been re-established as a settlement since the War. And Ms. Hazel’s outburst aside, there have been reports of dangers around there. If you really want to go there . . . well, why do you want to go there?” He gave Mariah a quizzical look.

Mariah could not tell him the truth, so she had to improvise. It was easier to come up with a lie this time, unlike with the jail guard and Gerald. “I’m . . . going relic-hunting. I just want to know what I can before going there.”

“Another adventurer, eh? Well, I’m sure you can find some lucrative treasures there. Ms. Hazel might seem a bit off her rocker, but she does have a point about the potential dangers there. I’d greatly advise against going there, but if you insist, I’ll help you out. Stock up on ammo and defense and stimpaks before you go. Now, let me see what old news articles there are that can lead you to some treasures.” The man went towards the back of the building, spending about five minutes going through terminal entries, holotapes, and preserved newspaper articles. He returned with a stack of some old newspapers and a small booklet. “Ah, here we go. Got some stuff on an old Fusion! plant right in town, including an article about Nuka-Cola coming to the area. Was a big deal back then. Nuka-Cola relics can fetch a pretty cap, but you can find those all across the United States. The real prizes are found in the Fusion! plant because that was the state’s soft drink corporation. Especially anything related to their Key Lime flavor, ‘cause Key Lime Pie was the official pie of the state. Then you got the usual stuff like an old church there, police and fire departments, and so on. Anyway, I’m sure you don’t want to hear me go on and on, so here it all is. And this booklet here contains some of the reports of dangers nearby.”

“Wow, that’s a lot of stuff. Thank you.” Mariah tossed a few caps the man’s way for the service. She could not take any of the papers with her, so she was going to take a few minutes to comb through the information to memorize and take notes on before leaving.

“Sure thing, young lady. Oh, and one more thing: The GCU has an outpost nearby and there are a couple caravans heading out that way. They got some GCU troops helping to defend them along the way, at least until they are far from Holt. Not sure if they are taking U.S. Route 90 or I-10 though. You’d have to ask around at the caravan depot.”

Mariah’s eyes lit up. “You don’t say?”

“Yep. With the uptick in attacks on traveling traders, caravan guards have been in higher demand and GCU has had to provide protection as well.”

“Thanks a bunch for the help, sir. One more thing, though: Why is Holt so dangerous if there is a GCU outpost there?”

The man shrugged. “The way I understand it is that they have cleared the place out before. But it doesn’t stay empty for long. Raiders and monsters don’t exactly have respect for the law and civilization. And lately the GCU has been preoccupied with other issues. Just watch yourself out there, you hear?”

Mariah nodded. It certainly sounded like an intimidating place regardless of Dissident activity, but Mariah was not going to stop now. She wanted revenge against the Dissidents. Still, she thought it was odd that they would pick such a dangerous spot to launch operations from. It wasn’t like raiders or irradiated creatures would be very keen on having another occupant in town. Was it because nobody would suspect that would be where they are based? Was it the only place they could find that had the facilities they needed? Did the Dissidents even know what dangers lurked there? In any case, Mariah now knew that she could use the caravans to get to her destination.

The next item on Mariah’s list was to go to the caravan depot and ask around about who was heading in that direction and what kind of protection was being provided. She found that there were three different caravans going at 9:00 AM, 10:00 AM, and 12:00 PM tomorrow. Each of these caravans was going to a different location: Niceville, some place called Mart-Town, and Defuniak Springs. But which of them was best for Mariah to go with? She did not know what time the GCU raid on the Dissidents was planned to be or how the GCU was moving troops. She primarily wanted to avoid Commander Bertrand and Jacob so they did not suspect her attempts to be involved, but would they help protect any of the caravans? They may not be with any of them at all. It looked like she was going to have to stake out the depots from a distance to see.

Afterward, she bought a few RadAways and Stimpaks along with some extra bullets for her 10MM pistol on her way back to Valentina’s house.

//////////

As Mariah was finalizing her plans on the living room couch that night, a dejected-looking Valentina walked through the front door. “Are you okay, Val?” Mariah asked, concerned.

“They aren’t letting me go either,” Val mumbled.

“What? Why not?”

“Commander Bertrand is concerned that my emotions will cloud my judgment as well.” Despite being GCU, the Dissidents were directly responsible for her father Gabriel’s death. “I’m going to be relegated to the office for the day. I suppose I understand but . . .” Valentina suddenly pounded the table. “Damn it, I should be going! They need to suffer for what they did to my dad! To all those people! I . . .” She burst into tears.

Mariah scooted over and put her arm around Valentina’s shoulders. “I’m sorry, Val.” For a moment, she considered telling Valentina her plans for tomorrow. She quickly decided against it. Valentina may have felt similarly about the situation as Mariah did, but she was unlikely to go directly against Bertrand’s orders. It wasn’t her personality to be that defiant and it would jeopardize her employment with the GCU anyway. Mariah wasn’t beholden to such constraints. And Valentina might even try to warn Bertrand to protect Mariah from getting herself into danger.

“You’re a really good friend, Mariah,” Valentina said once some of the emotion subsided. “I know we’ve basically only just met, but I really appreciate you being here.”

“Same to you,” Mariah smiled. “So, what happens for you tomorrow?”

Valentina heavily sighed. “Desk work, I suppose. Hopefully they have something that’s actually engaging in town though.” Valentina reciprocated Mariah’s side hug. “It’s been a long day and I need to get some sleep. I’m going to the station early tomorrow, so ‘good morning’ if I don’t see you then,” she laughed as she got up off the couch.

If Valentina was gone early in the morning, that would make it easier for Mariah to execute her plan. It suddenly crossed her mind that she was, in a sense, going behind Valentina’s back. What would she think if she knew what Mariah was going to do? And Mariah didn’t want her to feel some sort of abandonment while going off to fight the Dissidents. For the first time that day, Mariah second-guessed whether she should really go forward with her plan. But she was a stubborn individual and she was determined to make the Dissidents pay. She soon went to sleep to make sure she was well-rested for the big day.

////////////

Mariah woke up at 8:15 AM the next morning, noticing that Valentina had already left. It was time to set her plan into motion.

Mariah arrived at the depot just before 9:00 AM, when the first caravan was leaving. Its destination was Mart-Town, a settlement that repurposed a huge building for an old corporation called UniMart for living and trading purposes. UniMart was not as big as some similar stores like Super Duper Mart elsewhere in the country, but it was a well-known corporation in the southeastern United States. Holt was basically right on the way to this Mart-Town, stopping at the GCU outpost nearby.

There were GCU officers standing ready to move out with the caravan. Mariah even saw a few of those Kolossi and Anoles that Bertrand had mentioned yesterday. Fortunately for her, Bertrand and Jacob were nowhere in sight. Looks like I get a head-start, she thought. She paid a fare to ride in the caravan, climbing on board a cart being pulled by Brahmin.

//////////

A few hours later the caravan arrived at the GCU outpost. The caravan was taking a quick break, so Mariah used the opportunity to hop off her cart and surreptitiously departed from the caravan. She was going to have to lay low for a while to avoid GCU detection. There were a few rundown buildings nearby that had nothing going on in them. Mariah checked them out and, having determined that they would be a good place to stay for the time being, started using them as her own makeshift base. The ruins of Holt could barely be made out in the distance.

Another hour or two later, another convoy arrived at the outpost with GCU soldiers in tow. As they filed into the main building, she overheard a conversation between two of the soldiers.

“Man, I’m telling you, I saw him! The guy with the yellow trenchcoat and dirty fedora!” The first one said.

“Dude, you’re crazy. Do you believe everything you hear?” The second one said.

“Nah, man, I told you I saw it with my own eyes. Nobody knows who he is, but he exists. Some Mysterious Stranger. Popped a couple raiders and then just left. He just vanished!”

“Why don’t you go get some water, my man. Heat’s playing tricks on you.”

“Fine, don’t believe me. I know what I saw.”

[Fallout Soundtrack: City of Lost Angels]

Mariah thought that was a rather curious conversation. It sounded like yet another legend out in these wastes. If there was a bottle of purified water for every legend, real or imagined, you could irrigate the whole wasteland and still have enough to sate everyone’s thirst. Mariah didn’t have time to ponder it, however, as she glimpsed Bertrand and Jacob. The time for Mariah’s revenge on the Dissidents was near.

The soldiers all entered the GCU outpost, undoubtedly to pour back over the raid’s plans to make sure this pre-emptive strike went smoothly. They soon came back out, armed to the teeth. As they marched toward Holt, Mariah tried to stay out of sight while tailing them, a tall task as there weren’t many places to hide and there were many soldiers on alert. Several snipers looked through their scopes to scout the ruins before signaling to move forward. The Fusion! plant could be seen not too far from the main section of Holt, surprisingly still in pretty decent shape considering the condition of the rest of the town. Most buildings were either completely leveled, had collapsed roofs, or otherwise showed significant damage.

Mariah, and some of the soldiers, could not help but feel some apprehension at entering Holt, regardless of the operation. No wonder the town’s ruins had its reputation. There was something about the atmosphere that just seemed eerie, more than your usual ruins. As the soldiers approached the road to the Fusion! plant, the snipers scouted with their scopes and signaled the all-clear once again.

It was then that a voice, not from anybody in GCU, suddenly bellowed “Open fire!”

[Fallout: New Vegas Battle Soundtrack]

Chaos erupted as various weaponry fired off at the GCU, who had to scramble for cover as Commander Bertrand barked orders. The Dissidents had ambushed them. GCU had to quickly return fire and find whatever cover they could.

Mariah was shocked as she found a wall to hide behind. How the hell did the Dissidents know the GCU was coming? Mariah wondered. The snipers had found no sign of activity. Holt was ostensibly abandoned. The scouts would have seen them coming out of the Fusion! plant but they practically came out of the damn walls. There should have been no way the Dissidents got the drop on the GCU, yet they did anyway.

As Bertrand kept yelling orders to his soldiers, Mariah noticed a Dissident with almost a clear shot at him. She reacted quickly, firing several bullets the Dissident’s way and killing him. Somehow, even with all the pandemonium, Bertrand was able to distinguish the sound of Mariah’s 10MM pistol from the rest of the noise. Nobody else was using that weapon. He saw where she was hiding, which was about 15 feet away from his position, and gave her an exasperated look. She could still hear his voice over the gunfire. “[Censored] damn it, Mariah! I told you not to come! What are you doing here?!”

“Sorry, Commander, but I was not going to miss this!” She yelled back with a determined look on her face.

“You’re going to get yourself killed! Stay down!” Bertrand returned to surveying the landscape and barking out orders. Dissidents and GCU soldiers seemed to be dropping dead left and right.

And then things got even more chaotic.

After a few minutes of warfare, nearby mutated creatures joined the battle, being drawn by the excessive amount of noise. Several people on both sides of the fight yelled out the arrival of the creatures. Sirens, Radfrogs, Radtoads came out of the woodwork, just like Mariah was warned about back in the Pensacola News-Journal office. There were many crazy monsters that she had seen traversing the wastes, but these three kinds were new to her. As if the guns weren’t loud enough, a couple of Sirens blasted an intensely loud shriek. It was so loud that literally everyone firing weapons had to temporarily let down their guns to cover their ears. Radfrogs started secreting a noxious liquid trying to cover any enemies nearby and Radtoads flicked out their tongues to try to strike prey. Of course, the monsters didn’t have any preferences for which side they wanted to win: They attacked GCU, Dissidents, and each other in an attempt at a meal.

Mariah was not able to find many clear shots, firing one every so often at any Dissidents or monsters she could see. But she needed to be careful about using up all her ammo. Suddenly, one of the Radtoads noticed her and started running toward her. In a panic, she gasped and unloaded an entire clip’s worth of bullets into it to down the creature as it was getting ready to lash its tongue out. She was so scared that she had to stop engaging in combat to catch her breath. The fear was especially unexpected given her singular focus on vengeance against the Dissidents, but these creatures were far more intimidating than what she expected. And these mutated animals were only for starters. Florida had a lot of diverse, mutated fauna to offer.

Mariah regained her composure and reloaded her gun. There was no end to this battle in sight—not for most of the combatants at least. Suddenly, a hand reached around her face, covering her mouth with a cloth drenched in some sort of sedative. She accidentally dropped her gun at the surprise and fought desperately against whoever was attempting to overpower her. But it was no use. She could not see the attacker. The sounds of battle slowly started slipping away as Mariah drifted off into unconsciousness.

This post has been edited by RaderOfTheLostArk: Aug 26 2020, 06:36 PM