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For an article about the military strength of the Enclave, see Enclave military strength. |
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The Enclave is a secretive political and military organization who are descended directly from members of the pre-War United States government, and claim to be the legally-sanctioned continuation of the government while styling themselves as such.[4] The Enclave comprises mostly descendants of government officials and military elite, and some others such as those with ties to powerful corporations who retreated to the Poseidon Energy Oil Rig.
Overview
The Enclave takes pride in being the last known concentrated bastion of pure, unmutated humanity, aside from the unopened Vaults, and being the most technologically advanced faction in the wasteland. Because of the effects of radiation and the Forced Evolutionary Virus on the people of the Wasteland, most members of the Enclave generally do not consider them to be human any more because of these hazards. They, as well as other mutated creatures, like the various generations of super mutants and ghouls, are considered to be abominations that are, at best, to be used as conscripted assets or slaves, and at worst, eradicated so that "true humanity" could take its place as the "real" nation of America.
The government is headed by a President, and, according to the speeches made on Enclave Radio, there is some form of Congress.[5] The Enclave's scientists continue to do research on armor (e.g. the advanced power armor) and weapons after the War and thus are better equipped than the Brotherhood of Steel, who only have U.S. Military standard issue left over from when the Great War broke out. The Enclave had managed to gain access to one of the last known supplies of fossil fuel in the post-nuclear world.[6]
Background
Origins
The Star-Spangled Banner
One of the few old world organizations to survive the Great War, the Enclave finds its roots in various branches of the pre-War American government. Its founding members embraced the inevitability of nuclear war. They believed that the common man of the nation could not survive it. With most believing that as long as the 'important people' of the United States survived, they could regroup quickly when worse came to worst and wipe out communism once and for all.
Though not technically a part of the Enclave, many powerful corporations lobbied for the benefits that they hoped would result from government-sanctioned war contracts. Based in many of the Enclave's research facilities, most were protected or grazed during the nuclear firestorm of 2077.[7]
In 2073, as the global race to exploit the handful of remaining natural resources reached its most fevered peak, the United States managed to stake a claim on the entire world's last known supply of crude oil, buried thousands of feet beneath the Pacific Ocean. Poseidon Oil, which in the years leading to the war became the world's leading monopoly on remaining oil reserves, was contracted to build an oil rig and extract the precious oil.
Finally, early in the fateful year of 2077, with the planet ultimately headed directly for nuclear devastation, the President of the United States and various other members of the continuity of government fell back to multiple fortified areas around the world. The Poseidon Oil Rig in the Pacific Ocean was chosen as their main hidden fortress with which the United States could continue to exist and wage war on China, with the eventual goal of retaking the continental United States and wiping out communism forever. Other members of the Enclave retreated to remote locations in other parts of the world, but when the bombs began to fly, they lost communications with the main group.[7]
As the world burnt in nuclear hellfire and the United States with it, its President, and the Enclave, remnants of the pre-War American government,[8] assumed positions and established themselves as its continuation...
The Vault Experiment
A poster advertising the Vault program.
Vault promotion poster from Fallout 3
The Vaults were funded by the U.S. government and, accordingly, the government had control over them. Ostensibly, they were intended to allow a selection of privileged United States citizens to survive the Great War. Secretly, however, a large part of the Vault Project had a far more sinister goal.
 | The following is based on Van Buren design documents and is not canon. |
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The U.S. government's real plan to survive a nuclear war was simply to find another planet to live on after blowing up Earth. A spacecraft designed to ferry the human race to another planet was either under construction or ready to go before the War. The plan was for the government to flee to the oil rig, and then leave in a spaceship for another planet.[9]
Any voyage to space or recolonization of Earth would have been very difficult and fraught with unforeseeable complications. Thus, many of the Vaults were designed to have some sort of critical flaw in order to test how an average American would be able to deal with various circumstances. Vault 12 in Bakersfield had a faulty Vault door that wouldn't close all the way, allowing dangerous radiation to leak in, leading to the creation of California's ghoul population. Vault 15 was built normally (the rock slide that buried its control center was accidental), but was populated with a diverse mix of races and people to see what sort of tensions arise when varied backgrounds are packed into a small environment. Vault 13 was intended to stay shut for a full 200 years to test the effects of long term isolation. Vault 101 was to be sealed permanently to study the evolution of small communities in complete isolation from the rest of the world. The types and purposes of the experiments go on.
Eventually, due to either a change of plans by the Enclave's leadership or the spacecraft being destroyed, the Enclave abandoned their initial goal of settling on another planet, and decided to resettle the one they already had, although the Vault monitoring and research continued as the Societal Preservation Program. In order to monitor the populations being experimented upon, the Enclave's oil rig possessed a great deal of equipment that allowed them to observe and control the Vaults. For example, the Enclave sent the all clear signal to Vault 8 shortly after the War, prompting them to leave their Vault and build their city. These monitoring tools also let the Enclave see that the population of Vault 13 was largely intact, although this wouldn't become important until much later.
| End of information based on Van Buren design documents |
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Rise to Power
Dick Richardson, President of the United States in 2242.
The seal on the Poseidon Oil Rig's entry level floor.
For a long time after the Great War, the Enclave sat quietly in its oil rig, consolidating its forces and working on gaining a technological edge over anyone on the mainland. Eventually, when they felt it would be safe, they decided it was time to move out and start working towards the rebirth of America. Using their vertibirds, the Enclave sent out scouting parties all over California, the closest state to the oil rig.
The Enclave scouting parties arrived in California after the Master's defeat, and so saw super mutants and ghouls inhabiting the land. When this was reported to the higher ups at the Enclave, it was decided that all the mutants would have to go. It occurred to the Enclave that those who had lived out in the open on the mainland for over a hundred years since the end of the war must have been contaminated or compromised somehow by radiation...or worse. These mutants too, then, would have to be destroyed before "true" humanity (as defined by the Enclave's leadership), could once again lay claim to the mainland.
Reconnaissance and exploration of California continued, looking for a way of carrying out their genocidal ambitions without destroying the world all over again with nuclear weapons. Eventually, Enclave troops stumbled across the old abandoned Mariposa Military Base, where research on the Forced Evolutionary Virus had been done before the Great War. The FEV was what had created the super mutants, the biggest threat of all to the Enclave.
The Enclave excavated the military base, largely using slave labor gathered from the nearby mining town of Redding, eventually finding the vats deep inside the lower levels of the base. Though they had been buried in rock and forgotten for decades, the vats still contained that old familiar green bubbling gunk, the Forced Evolutionary Virus. The Enclave gathered samples to be sent back to the oil rig for further analysis. Before long, though, the slave miners, some being fully exposed to raw FEV, others likely falling into the vats accidentally, began to mutate into a second generation of super mutants. The mutant slaves soon overthrew their guards. Seizing their weapons, hardware left behind by the first mutant army or anything lying around, the super mutants stormed the upper levels and quickly overran the troops in the base. Panicked and retreating, the Enclave troopers on the upper levels fled the base and used explosives to seal the entrance, trapping the second generation mutants inside the base.[10]
The Project
Even though things went badly at Mariposa, the Enclave still had the samples of FEV they needed. Back at the oil rig, the United States Chemical Corps began work on the serum immediately. They found that it would be possible to make from FEV an incredibly potent and lethal toxin that only affected mutants. But, in order for research to progress, they would need test subjects. They needed two test groups: one of clean, pure humans and another composed of the "mutants" that lived all over the mainland, suffering radiation and FEV exposure for decades that, to the Enclave, made them unclean.[11] This unclean sample was easily obtained by kidnapping the entire tribal population of Arroyo.
The clean group would be more difficult to obtain though. The Enclave wouldn't allow the Chemical Corps to use people living on the oil rig so they had to look elsewhere. Thus, they traveled in force to Vault 13 and sent a command to the Vault's computers to open the Vault door. After taking care of some mild resistance, the Enclave troops rounded up the residents of Vault 13 and shipped them off to the oil rig in Vertibirds to take part in the Chemical Corps' FEV experiments.[12]
Fall and Aftermath
Just as the Enclave was preparing to launch the poison into the jet stream to kill off the entire known population of the mainland, a tribal known as the Chosen One arrived at the oil rig on the Poseidon oil tanker that had sat in the San Francisco bay for many years. The Chosen One freed the survivors of both the Vault 13 population as well as the Arroyo tribals and started a self-destruct sequence in the oil rig that destroyed the entirety of the Enclave's headquarters, saving the world from horrible death at the hands of the modified FEV.[13][14]
Although the Enclave survived the destruction of their oil rig, all traces of President Richardson were erased from history. Weakened and cut off from much of their leadership, eventually the remainder of Enclave personnel stationed in the Core Region that did not retreat prior were finally shattered by the combined might of the Brotherhood of Steel and the New California Republic. But beforehand, Autumn Senior led the majority of surviving Enclave personnel east, such as to the ruins of Washington D.C. at Raven Rock, to re-establish the Enclave as the dominant power in their nation's former capital.[15]
Those who remained (why Autumn Senior and his subordinates left so few of the remnant personnel behind in the Core Region to begin with remains an unsolved mystery) were hunted by the Brotherhood and the NCR, while some tried to integrate themselves into the NCR and met temporarily minimal success,[16] from time to time stories will crop up of an elderly Enclave veteran that was caught integrating being executed or arrested.
Resurgence
John Henry Eden, President of the Enclave in 2277.
In D.C., the ZAX mainframe installed in Raven Rock to ensure continuity of government continued to function until the destruction of the oil rig. When President Richardson was vaporized, ZAX created a persona, John Henry Eden to claim the post and assume authority over the remaining California Enclave forces, in addition to resuming construction of military ordnance [17] to provide for the resource-stricken subordinates. Augustus Autumn was chosen as the commanding officer of the armed forces (eventually succeeding his father). A series of eyebots were sent to roam the Wasteland, spreading hope and patriotism. Eden could spout his pro-government rhetoric, and promise a return of the pre-War America of legend: a land of white picket fences, baseball, apple pie, and good, old-fashioned American global supremacy.[18]
President Eden’s secretive plan all along had been to rule over an America of the "pure", free from any mutation, just as his predecessor had planned before him. He has learned of a ridiculously ambitious scientific experiment known as Project Purity, and knew the time to strike had come: the Enclave's armed forces would "reclaim" the Jefferson Memorial. By controlling the purified water supply, Eden would control the Capital Wasteland, and the rest of the country eventually. What better way than to administer a Modified FEV virus, which kills anyone infected or irradiated with any form of mutation—than through a deceptively clean water supply?[19]
Enclave propaganda found in the Capital Wasteland.
Old Tricks
East Coast Enclave troopers.
When Project Purity was restarted in 2277, the Enclave acted at once. Troops under Autumn occupied the Purifier, and established a presence in the wastes, which was resisted by the Brotherhood of Steel. After retrieving a Garden of Eden Creation Kit from Vault 87, Eden attempted to recruit the individual known as the Lone Wanderer to work as a double agent, participating in the Brotherhood's attempted reclamation of Project Purity but infecting the water supply with the modified FEV at the last moment. Eden was opposed by Colonel Autumn, who wanted to make a bid to lead the populace by completing and activating the purifier, thus providing the Enclave with a strong bargaining chip in unifying the wastes under their flag. When the Brotherhood took the Jefferson Memorial, Autumn was defeated by the Lone Wanderer, but it is not known whether he survived. The Lone Wanderer stood poised to finally realize the Enclave's goal of purifying the wasteland, but it is unknown to history whether or not they took that action.
The definitive fate of the Enclave as a whole after these events remain a mystery.
Enclave Sigma
After the destruction of Raven Rock, the Enclave performed a combination of tactical retreat and all-out flight, and their grip on the Capital Wasteland loosened significantly. Now contending with overwhelmed soldiers, ragged Enclave camps dot the Wasteland with little communication to and from the others. With the conventional Enclave military experiencing a lack of new recruits and the high command remaining silent, the Enclave would seem to be a doomed force.
However, a small influx of specially trained fighters is seeking to fill the manpower losses caused by the Brotherhood of Steel advances. Previously posted to remote and classified locations outside of the Capital Wasteland, only the most elite of Enclave personnel having training in multiple forms of combat can earn the right to belong to Sigma. Squad sigma operates in six-soldier units, which utilize heavy incinerators and are led by a soldier clad in Hellfire Armor. Furthermore, Squad Sigma members are experienced fighters, each member being a hardened veteran of numerous successful combat operations. Sigma Squads are posted around locations deemed by Enclave high command as imperative to the salvation of the cause.
Western Remnants
In the year 2281 on the west coast, a few elderly Enclave survivors make an existence on the fringes of, or near the borders of NCR territories, keeping their heads down for fear of persecution. Many left for the Mojave Wasteland, where the NCR's grip was significantly weaker due to the presence of Caesar's Legion. Enclave Remnants may have supported the Courier at the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, either desperate for a final shot at glory and to exact revenge on the NCR, or assist them against the Legion. Whether they joined the Courier, and/or the outcome of the battle, remains unknown.[20] Enclave scientists and engineers stationed at Adams Air Force Base sent a reinforced combat-model eyebot, ED-E, to Navarro to be serviced and repaired there, seemingly uninformed of the assault on the outpost. ED-E's programming contained a message saying that any repairs needed on the way were to be made by Chicago Enclave personnel, indicating that there are Enclave outposts there. The Illinois license plate bolted to ED-E's side is just one more fact that supports the idea that other Enclave outposts or holdings still exist elsewhere within North American Wastelands.[21][2][3]
Facilities
The Oil Rig.
West Coast
Oil Rig
The Poseidon Energy oil rig off the coast of California served as the base for the post-Great War United States government. They were relocated to the rig as the bombs began to fall and it served as their main headquarters until its sabotage by a tribal from Arroyo known as the "Chosen One".
Navarro
Navarro was an old oil refinery that served mainly as a refueling stop for Enclave Vertibirds carrying out missions in or around California as well as a general go-to base of operations outside of the Oil Rig. The Navarro perimeter is patrolled by Enclave Control Company light teams, that operate independent from Navarro's base commanding officer.
Mariposa Military Base
Mariposa was a pre-War U.S. military base where the Forced Evolutionary Virus research was being done. After the war, it was taken over by the Master who used it to create an army of super mutants. After the Master's defeat and the base's destruction at the hands of the Vault Dweller, it was excavated by the Enclave, but abandoned when their newly mutated slaves rebelled against them.[10]
East Coast
Raven Rock
Raven Rock
Raven Rock was the Enclave's main base of operation in 2277. The Lone Wanderer is captured and taken to Raven Rock and held in an interrogation room by Colonel Augustus Autumn. President Eden asks for the Lone Wanderer to be released so that the Lone Wanderer can be spoken to privately. Upon reaching President Eden, the Lone Wanderer is asked to place the modified FEV in Project Purity.
Satellite Relay Station
After the loss of Raven Rock, the Satellite Relay Station was the Enclave's main communications installation. The facility was used primarily to coordinate the remainder of Enclave forces following the devastating defeat at the Purifier. During an offensive by the Brotherhood of Steel led by Liberty Prime, the defending forces of the Station contacted the mobile base crawler to call down an orbital strike on the robot's position. Liberty Prime is destroyed, but shortly afterward the Station is lost to the Brotherhood.
Adams Air Force Base
The mobile base crawler
Adams Air Force Base was the new headquarters of the Enclave after the abandonment of Raven Rock. Located just outside the Capital Wasteland and accessible through the presidential metro, the base facilities housed some of the Enclave's VB-02 Vertibirds and was defended by squads of soldiers and artillery emplacements. The heart of Enclave operations in the area was the mobile base crawler, which featured a satellite communications dish capable of calling down an orbital strike from an unknown orbital weapons platform. Control of Adams AFB was eventually taken from the Enclave by the Lone Wanderer, who either handed it to the Brotherhood or used its weapons to destroy the Citadel.[citation needed]
Notable members
2239-2242
Leaders
- President Dick Richardson
- Vice-President Daniel Bird
Soldiers
- Colonel Sanders
- Navarro base commander
- Captain Pickard
- Captain Judah Kreger
- Sergeant Arch Dornan
- Sergeant Bracks
- Sergeant Granite
- Cannibal Johnson
- Gannon Senior
- Orion Moreno
- J. Smith
- Snookie
- William Brandice
Scientists
- Tom Murray
- Dr. Charles Curling
- Dr. Henry
- Dr. Schreber
Technicians
- A. Ron Meyers
- Kevin
- Quincy
- Raul
Others
- Special Agent Frank Horrigan
- Vertibird Pilot Daisy Whitman
- Cook Cookie
- Quartermaster
- Arcade Gannon
- Chris
2242-2278
Leaders
- President John Henry Eden
Soldiers
- Colonel Augustus Autumn
- Private Matthew Scott
- Enclave Sigma leader
- J.J. Black
- J. Tuckman
Scientists
Technicians
2278 onwards
Notes
- A pre-War organization known as Quaere Verum succeeded in stealing an advanced prototype energy weapon from the pre-War federal government (later becoming the Enclave), but were swiftly eradicated.Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; invalid names, e.g. too many - In New Reno, the Enclave was involved in a confidential exchange with the Salvatore crime family. The terms of the agreement were that the Enclave would provide the Salvatores with powerful laser pistols, giving them an intimidating edge over the other Reno crime families, in exchange for which the Salvatores traded the Enclave odd chemical components and slaves on at least two occasions.[22][23]
- The entire tribal village of Arroyo was abducted to serve as test subjects for the Chemical Corps' experiments.[24]
- In a canyon not far outside of Klamath, Daisy Whitman's vertibird crashed due to a rotor malfunction, killing its crew. A single Mister Handy model robot survived the accident but malfunctioned as a result, leading the simple residents of Klamath to assume the canyon was haunted by ghosts.[25]
- The Enclave use PoseidoNet, which is still patched into Poseidon Energy Gecko reactor systems, allowing them to communicate with users logged onto the nuclear power plant's computer. There are 4 computer stations confirmed as still operating: two on the oil rig, one in Navarro, and one in Gecko.[26]
- The Enclave is attempting to use deathclaws as minions, as evidenced by Fallout 2 and eventually brought to fruition in Fallout 3 as they succeed in assuming control over some of them with specially-designed technology.[27]
- If you convince Eden to destroy Raven Rock, the Enclave Radio station will also disappear, but his Eyebots will still roam the wasteland, and soldiers will still be around.
- Enclave soldiers can be found patrolling the Capital Wasteland alone, in a couple or in a group of three. They will attack the player on sight.
Appearances
The Enclave has a major role in Fallout 2 and Fallout 3, and also make a minor appearance in Fallout: New Vegas and in its add-on Lonesome Road. A lost Enclave patrol team would have also appeared in Black Isle's canceled Fallout 3. The Enclave is frequently mentioned in Fallout Bible.
Behind the scenes
Before deciding upon the "E surrounded by stars" insignia designed by J.E. Sawyer, Bethesda used a different styling of insignias for the Enclave and its Vertibird fleets:
Sources
Holodisks
- Military base level 1
- Military base level 2
- Military base level 3
- Military base level 4
- Military base outside
- State of the Nation
- The Project
- Power plant operations
- Word list
See also
References
- ↑ ED-E My Love
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 ED-E 2
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Fallout Bible 6.
- ↑ Dick Richardson's dialogue: "{174}{prs19}{I am the elected representative of the people. The United States does still exist. God bless us, every one. We've just had to adapt in order to survive after the war.}"
- ↑ Enclave Radio speech #1
- ↑ Vertibird refueling station(s)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Fallout Bible 0|"the federal government (or whatever branch of federal government was responsible - it was not necessarily the Enclave) may not have ever considered the Vaults as society's best chance for survival - the government may have considered themselves the best candidates for rebuilding the world and already had their asses covered in the event of a nuclear or biological war by relocating to other remote installations across the nation (and elsewhere) that weren't necessarily vaults. The Enclave certainly didn't seem to be devoting much effort to digging up any other vaults and trying to use the human stock there to rebuild civilization."]] Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "FB0" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Fallout 3 Official Game Guide Game of the Year Edition page 41: "In the recent past, the Enclave—the remains of the United States government—were evacuated to an oil rig off the coast of California. Little is known about what happened to these forces, although the country has a new commander-in-chief: President John Henry Eden. However, recent reports and chatter have pinpointed the resurgence of the Enclave, with their base centered on a secure underground facility known as Raven Rock. Initial contact was made there 35 years ago."
"During this time, the new President Eden has been slowly rebuilding his resources, thanks in part to the technology already available at the Raven Rock military base. Vertibirds, weapons, and robots were easy to construct, but human followers were more difficult to find. The answer was to rely on Colonel Autumn, who controls the Enclave soldier forces, as well as creating a propaganda-spewing series of Eyebots sent to roam the Wasteland, spreading hope. Eden could spout his pro-government rhetoric, and promise a return of the pre-war America of legend: a land of white picket fences, baseball, apple pie, and good, old-fashioned American global supremacy." - ↑ Information acquired from Tim Cain by Paweł "Ausir" Dembowski as being the original purpose of the Vault experiment in Fallout 2 design documents. Also mentioned in the Bloomfield Space Center design document for Van Buren:“In November, 2076, the Enclave seized control of Bloomfield Space Center. They knew nuclear war was just around the corner, so they tried to refit the Hermes-13 and convert it into a vehicle that would take selected personnel (mainly themselves) off-planet, destination yet to be determined.”
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Mariposa Military Base excavation
- ↑ {280}{prs57}{Very moving. But the radical changes your villagers and other mutants show is a far cry from the gradual changes of natural evolution. } {258}{prs48}{Test subjects. Your villagers are all descended from vault stock and we had to make sure that the F.E.V. toxin was still effective. The subjects from Vault 13 test that and an inoculation against the FEV.}
- ↑ The Project
- ↑ For Auld Lang Syne
- ↑ Judah Kreger
- ↑ Fallout 3 Enclave outposts and camps
- ↑ Arcade Gannon
- ↑ Enclave power armor (Fallout 3)
- ↑ Enclave Radio
- ↑ Project Impurity
- ↑ Fallout: New Vegas For Auld Lang Syne
- ↑ ED-E My Love
- ↑ Metzger
- ↑ Help guard Enclave transaction
- ↑ Stop the Enclave
- ↑ Daisy Whitman
- ↑ Enclave communications officer
- ↑ Domestication unit
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