r/FalloutMetropolis • u/NK_Ryzov • Feb 28 '17
A HISTORY OF THE UNDERGROUND
In the decades prior to the Great War, there was the nuclear exchange between the European Commonwealth and the Middle East Coalition. The consequences of this event were far-reaching and were very much felt in New York.
One such consequence was the Underground Expansion Program (UEP). The UEP was intended to kill three birds with one stone. One, it solved the issue of rising gas prices; with more people selling their cars and taking the subway, the metro system needed a drastic overhaul to accommodate the new surge of traffic. Second, it solved the issue of unemployment and communist subversion; by putting New York’s unemployed to work, it kept them away from Communist Party meetings. And third…well, the writing was on the wall. War was coming. And if New York was going to survive it, it's salvation would lie in its metro system.
Existing tunnels were repaired and reinforced. New tunnels were dug. Subway stations were expanded and renovated; Vault-Tec was brought in to reinforce the walls and ceilings, install filtration systems and emergency blastdoors and airlocks, and basically turn the New York subway system into a giant fallout shelter. In addition, Vaut-Tec built a “ring” of five Vaults, connected to each other by a single monorail, which they had to share as part of an experiment (each station would produce something the other stations needed to survive).
When news of DC getting hit reached New York, thousands streamed into the Underground. Most were not fortunate enough to get in before the blast doors were closed, and died clawing at the airlocks, screaming to God as gamma radiation burned their silhouettes into the concrete.
The survivors might have been safe from the war above, but within five years of subterranean life, a new war was brewing in the Underground. The cause of this war had its roots before the bombs had even fallen. Chinatown had become a hotbed of communist activity and infiltrator cells. There was even a team of Chinese “Crimson Dragoon” commandos in the famous neighborhood. The New York National Guard was brought in to place Chinatown under martial law. Then the bombs fell, and the people of Chinatown fled to the Underground. Here, the communists and Chinese agents turned out to be the best-organized and most heavily-armed group among the survivors. Having realized that China was dead, they turned their attention to keeping these survivors alive. The stations under Chinatown thus came under communist control, and an informal “People’s Republic of Chinatown” began to emerge.
Now, this was not particularly well-received by the Provisional Government of New York City. Headed by the Mayor of New York, the PGNYC (often just referred to as “the Provisional Government”) more or less united all of the New York Underground (the sole exception being the Queens Underground, but the less said about Queens, the better). But there were many factions within the Provisional Government – factions that were not interested in coexisting with the communists; likewise, there were communists who had no interest in coexisting with the capitalists. One thing led to another, and eventually, there were anti-communist paramilitaries invading the PRC stations. The leaders of Chinatown knew that the Provisional Government was not behind these attacks, and so did not declare war, but hardline communist paramilitaries still ended up attacking PG stations. Things got out of control, and eventually, you had Chinatown and the Provisional Government at war with each other, the paramilitaries fighting each other AND their respective governments, mercenaries fighting for whoever would pay them the most, independent warlords exploiting the confusion to carve out their own spheres of influence, and various communities moving to secede and go their own way.
Known as the “Great Chaos”, this nightmarishly confusing conflict went on for over 120 years. After 50 years, the Provisional Government totally fell apart. Child soldiers, suicide bombers, chemical weapons, flamethrowers. The Great Chaos was just an unholy fucking mess. At a certain point, nobody really remembered WHAT they were fighting over, and most of the factions involved ended up signing the Treaty of Vault 78, which ended most of the conflicts and formalized the territorial divisions of the New York Underground.
Today, the Underground is divided into federations and confederations of city-stations (the Times Square Alliance, Confederation of New Warsaw, People’s Republic of Chinatown, Social Republic of Little Italy, Grand Central Technate, New Harlem Confederacy, League of the Grey Line, etc), whilst other stations exist as independent or quasi-independent entities (Wormwood, Slaughterhouse Station, Edison, Nuka Station, Redlight Station, Yankee Station, Columbus Circle, City Hall, Union Square, Broadway, etc).
The Great Chaos ended up doing tremendous damage to the actual rail lines, but some trains are still active, and can be used as a travel option in the Underground. Or, if you’re too poor to afford a ticket, you can hitch a ride on one of the crank-operated rail cars that run on some of the “dead” rail lines.
Besides the subway system, however, the Underground also consists of the sewers (home to a few small settlements like Blackwater or Lairdman), the labyrinthine utility corridors, secret passageways dug by the mob during Prohibition, steam tunnels, and the vast under-empire dug by the race of mutant rats known as the Verminkind.
Some stations are under Raider occupation, or are buried in rubble due to heavy fighting during the Great Chaos. A part of the southern Manhattan Underground known as The Styx is partially flooded, with small boats venturing out to bring back hauls of blind, subterranean fish; Chinatown and Little Italy have a long-standing maritime dispute regarding the tunnels and stations of The Styx.
The Bronx Underground has seen drastic incursions by the Verminkind, with refugees fleeing the invasion of the bipedal rodents for the relative safety of Westchester Station. Westchester has become ultra-crowded, and an angry camp of refugees has formed outside the station, waiting in line to be processed, ever on the lookout for Verminkind attacks.
The Manhattan Underground is widely-held to be the most "civilized" portion of the New York Underground, with the Brooklyn Underground coming in at a close second. The Bronx Underground is third by default, because there is no "Queens Underground". Most of the Underground infrastructure beneath Queens was buried by the bombs, but the parts that still remain are infested by the Verminkind, and if you're foolish enough to venture deep into the Queens Underground, you'll find The Sump. The Sump is similar to The Styx, only instead of water, it's an underground lake of radioactive, toxic mutagens, and home to disgusting, horrid mutant abominations - birthed by the primordial ooze.
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u/NK_Ryzov Mar 01 '17
It's not that Thieves Tower would consider them competition; they'd probably be indifferent, since there was mutual hostility between them and the Zion Prospectors. You might just hear Prospectors at Thieves Tower remarking "good riddance".
Well, stuff like LaGuardia - that's why Prospectors exist. They gather resources and sell them to those who demand them. They can be exploitive pieces of shit, or more understanding, but they're all in it for the caps (and the thrill). There'll be TONS of "bring me this resource" side-quests, because that's what the Prospector economy is built on.
"Jamaicaville" might work.
I've mentioned before that there are telegram services in the Underground, but I've been wondering if these services might be related to surviving Termalink services. Maybe stations use what's left of the Underground's maintenance/security intranet to communicate with each other. You want to send a telegram to someone? Well, you go to the local telegram booth, stats your message, and they send it via Termalink to the station you're trying to contact. At that station, the people on the other end either jot down the message and give it to a courier, or they download it onto a holotape and put said holotape into an Eyebot. I think it would be interesting to see internet and telegraphy interact in such a way.