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For the original Appalachian Brotherhood, see Brotherhood of Steel (Fallout 76). |
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The Brotherhood First Expeditionary Force was a detachment of Brotherhood of Steel soldiers sent from Roger Maxson's founding chapter at Lost Hills to re-establish contact with the chapter in Appalachia led by Paladin Elizabeth Taggerdy, who had been almost entirely wiped out by the Scorched Plague in 2095.
After arriving in the region in 2104, they founded Fort Atlas in a pre-War observatory and after learning the fates of their predecessors, assumed their mantle as the second Appalachian Brotherhood of Steel.[3] As a direct extension of the Brotherhood's power base in California, they are among the few groups in Appalachia to develop and use post-War power armor and energy weapons. They appear in Fallout 76, introduced in the Steel Dawn update and expanded upon in the Steel Reign update.
Background[]
Formation[]
Following the Great War, Captain Roger Maxson used surviving satellites to communicate with survivors across the United States of America, attempting to recruit them under a common cause, which eventually led to the formation of the Brotherhood of Steel.[4] He succeeded in contacting a former colleague, Elizabeth Taggerdy, who formed a Brotherhood chapter with her Army Ranger unit in Appalachia. Contact was lost with Taggerdy when the satellites failed years later, and the Western Brotherhood was left unaware of the outcome of the Appalachian chapter's war against scorchbeasts and the accompanying Scorched Plague.[5]
The former US National Guardsman and current Paladin Leila Rahmani requested an expedition to Appalachia.[2] After many years, her request was finally approved by High Elder Roger Maxson[1] and the Council of Elders, and she was appointed as its leader.[2] One of the expedition's critical members was to be Scribe Hailey Takano, but due to health issues, she was not able to take part and was replaced by her student Scribe Odessa Valdez, who had volunteered to take her teacher's position.[6] Three knights were given the task to accompany them, including Alan Connors, another National Guardsman and close friend of Rahmani, Matthew Thornberry and Daniel Shin. The expedition's goals were to investigate valued technological sites on their journey across the United States and upon arriving at Appalachia, set up camp at the ATLAS Observatory to investigate the facility's true purpose. In addition, they were to discern the fate of the original Appalachian chapter and to take their mantle if necessary, including the protection of Appalachia's inhabitants. Following that, the group would report their findings back to command.[7][8]
Journey[]
Paladin Rahmani led the First Expeditionary Force east from the Lost Hills bunker. Upon reaching the Sierra Nevada mountains, they encountered a group of raiders armed with fusion cores and advanced weaponry, who had captured a unit of Brotherhood soldiers.[9] Knight Thornberry personally rescued the soldiers and recovered the technology. This earned the respect of Rahmani, who charged him with the task of safely guiding the wounded soldiers back to Lost Hills.[9]
After crossing the Rocky Mountains, radio communications were lost between Lost Hills and the Expeditionary Force.[10] Over the course of the following months, the scribes at Lost Hills tried to reach the group, but to no avail. Command sent various encrypted radio messages, first while estimating their location near Lincoln, and later ordering the expedition to divert from their primary goal.[10] Another attempt was made, estimating their location as east of the Mississippi River, and ordering them to proceed with their original mission in order to establish contact at the target location in Appalachia.[10]
The next radio message was recorded off the record by Elder Roger Maxson via a private channel to Paladin Leila Rahmani. He believed the paladin understood the value and purpose of the Brotherhood of Steel, and despite their disagreements, Maxson hoped the lack of communication was simply due to the inability of answering back. Otherwise, the radio silence would be taken as desertion by the Council of Elders, and Maxson would be overruled in regards to what to do with the expedition and wouldn't be able to defend her anymore.[10]
After more than three months without any contact with the First Expeditionary Force, Elder Maxson sent a last official message to Paladin Rahmani.[10] The scribes estimated they had already entered Appalachia and should be close to their target destination at the ATLAS Observatory. Maxson's orders for the expedition were to immediately reestablish contact with Lost Hills after securing the observatory, providing a full report on their whereabouts during their journey, and to represent the Brotherhood in Appalachia.[10]
At some point during their months-long journey, Rahmani and the rest of the First Expeditionary Force encountered a settlement under threat of raiders.[11] Shin decided to equip them with advanced weaponry they had found in a military facility in the Midwest that they had initially intended to keep for the Brotherhood. However, the weapons proved useless against the raider force, as the settlement was wiped out, with only two young survivors who became Brotherhood refugees: Marcia and Maximo Leone.[11][12][13] Because of the loss of Knight Alan Connors and the raiders actually getting strengthened by the looted weapons, the incident would set off a division between Rahmani and Shin, with Shin wanting himself and Rahmani to stand trial with the Council of Elders.[14]
Arrival[]
Not far from Appalachia, while approaching their destination, Paladin Rahmani broadcasted a message across Appalachia, announcing their arrival and their objective of taking over the ATLAS Observatory, warning any possible occupants to leave the facility.[15][16] She announced they were going to help the people of Appalachia by providing aid and protection, and that any help would be welcome. Her voice could be heard across the region, becoming more audible with each passing week.[15]
Russell Dorsey, an enthusiast of the old Appalachian Brotherhood, had heard the radio message and was already at the observatory with several Protectrons to aid in its fortification.[17] He, alongside the Vault Dwellers, managed to clear the exterior of the facility and prepare it for the arrival of the expedition.[17][16][18]
Fort Atlas, previously the ATLAS Observatory
By the time the First Expeditionary Force reached the ATLAS Observatory, having had crossed over two thousand miles of wasteland over the course of many months, the group itself was made up of only three of the original five Brotherhood personnel.[19][20][21] In addition, they had informally recruited many initiates and hopefuls along the way. After establishing their base of operations, they renamed the observatory to Fort Atlas.[16][22]
Steel Dawn[]
During the first months in West Virginia, the new Appalachian Brotherhood established outposts around Fort Atlas and the Wayward,[23] and sent patrols composed of recent initiates and hopefuls to different areas of the region in search of technology.[24] The Brotherhood chapter was also soon inoculated against the Scorched Plague.[25]
Despite one of their primary missions being to reestablish contact with Lost Hills, the group was unable to do it due to the loss of their long-distance communications transmitter at the hands of raiders.[7] Rahmani expresses hesitation to establish contact, as she fears it would result in having their titles stripped and their influence rendered illegitimate.[26] Despite the fact that re-establishing contact was an order in and of itself, Rahmani believes that they could continue on as a sanctioned offshoot nonetheless, able to spread "authority and goodwill across the nation."[26] When the opportunity to activate the transmitter arises, Rahmani destroys it, angering Shin who says she is no longer part of the Brotherhood. Before they can have a long argument, they receive news that Fort Atlas is under attack by super mutants. After an arduous battle, the mutants are defeated.
Steel Reign[]
By 2104, Rahmani and Shin are still at odds over their Brotherhood's primary mission: Protect the people in Appalachia, or secure all manner of pre-War tech to prevent it from causing another apocalypse like the Great War. They soon discover that the super mutant attack on Fort Atlas was not coincidental. Dr. Edgar Blackburn, one of the people who came to Fort Atlas earlier looking for help from the Brotherhood, only to be turned away by Shin, had been kidnapping people from all over Appalachia to use as test subjects in his research to improve the Forced Evolutionary Virus.
Erika looks after an injured Shin
Shin, along with initiates Erika Hewsen and Norland, decide to investigate the Uncanny Caverns after hearing the super mutants may be originating from there. Norland ends up being killed after the group separates and Shin blames himself for the death of someone else again. As they venture further into the cavern, Hewsen ends up becoming caught in an explosive trap and Shin tries to rescue her in his power armor, injuring himself. With Hewsen's aid, they eventually return to Fort Atlas.
Later, Rahmani decided to interview the boss of the Blue Ridge Caravan Company, Joanna Mayfield, about the disappearances. After being guided by Aries, Rahmani learns that Blackburn was among several of the Blue Ridge's caravans, especially one that holed up in the Harpers Ferry tunnel due to a radstorm. After Blackburn was captured during his work inside Vault 96, Rahmani and Shin took him to the West Tek research center, where his fellow scientists Farha, Jain and Nellie Wright were putting the final touches on the FEV to release into the water and air, which would lead to more people being turned into super mutants once exposed, a worst-case scenario even worse than Huntersville. In a bid to prove their research is for the betterment of humanity in the wasteland, Blackburn willingly volunteers to be exposed to the virus himself, but a miscalculation or malfunction in the process causes Blackburn to be turned into a violent super mutant behemoth, forcing Rahmani and Shin to kill him.
After, Shin erupts at Rahmani, scolding her that something like this was just what the elders wanted to prevent: People trying to play God with science. Though Rahmani agrees with him on that, when they confront Farha, Jain and Nellie, they plead for mercy and ask that their lives be spared, considering that their research is invaluable to the wasteland with the loss of schools and universities because of the Great War and the decay that followed. Though Rahmani wants to spare them because of how valuable human life is nowadays, Shin is adamant that they be slain after seeing firsthand just how dangerous their knowledge is should it fall into the wrong hands if they are allowed to live.
In the end, the conflict over Blackburn's associates and the final say falling to the Vault Dweller who helped the Brotherhood results in Rahmani and Shin parting ways, unable to reach an agreement, with one either being killed or allowed to return to Maxson, while the other takes command of the Brotherhood to lead them on their new duty to Appalachia, promoting the Vault Dweller to knight-errant in the Brotherhood as thanks for everything they did to help the First Expeditionary Force.
Paladin Rahmani was seen as a outlier and a bit of a reject among members of the Brotherhood, both traditionalist and isolationists alike. Prior to departing Lost Hills, Rahmani had consistently clashed with the Elder council and other high ranking members. This included preservationist members like Maxson II, who believed that the Brotherhood should become completely isolationist.[27] But she also clashed with traditionalist's like High Elder Maxson and Knight Shin. She requested to lead the mission to Appalachia, seeing it as an opportunity to pursue her goals, but there are implications that she was chosen due to her fellow members contempt towards her. Encrypted transmissions from Lost Hills begged her to initiate contact at once, with some officers suggesting that she had already betrayed the organization and had gone rogue.[28]
Regardless she was respected by many members of the new chapter, particularly Scribe Valdez and Initiate Dorsey. Because of her prior experience in the military, she was seen as a kind and natural born leader. Despite this, Rahmani's influence over the initiates and hopefuls of the chapter was limited by the Chain That Binds doctrine. In her own words, she admitted that most of the chapter would likely take Knight Shin's side in their conflict, as he was their superior officer, responsible for both their indoctrination and training. Lower-ranking Brotherhood members were, for the most part, required to report directly to Knight Shin.[29]
Relationships with other Factions[]
After arriving in Appalachia, the Expeditionary Force only had three full-fledged members that were originally from California, and as such, the new chapter had a open recruitment policy (as does Lost Hills at this same period), having picked up dozens of initiates and hopefuls during their trek across the country. They also had success in recruited many in Appalachia, having broadcast their intent to arrive ahead of time.[30][31] They were also willing to let Initiate Dodge, the lone survivor of the original Appalachian Brotherhood into the ranks of the new chapter.[32] However the large influx of recruits, and wastelanders looking for shelter or handouts has led to the Chapter adopting the rank of 'Hopeful' below the rank of Initiate that are allowed to aid the Brotherhood on missions while finishing their probationary period.[33] After such time passes the individual will have the choice of joining the Brotherhood as a full-fledged member. The use of construction Protectrons were used to help fortify Fort Atlas. And regular security Protectrons were used to defend the makeshift vault.[34]
Paladin Rahmani hopes to cultivate good relationships with the other factions of Appalachia, to lead them to a brighter tomorrow, but this has mixed results and is not without controversy within the chapter.[35] They are generally hostile towards Raiders, but after an ill-fated mission in Ohio, the Brotherhood is avoiding proactive measures against them. In particular they largely view the Crater Raiders as beneath their notice.[36] They however have struck an arrangement with the Rust Eagles (a splinter faction of the Blood Eagles specializing in combat robots), where their team of Steel Gladiators compete against their robots in spectacle fights, allowing both sides to gage the fighting capacity of the other and avoiding a potential larger conflict.[37][38]
The Brotherhood relationship with the settlement of Foundation is optional, despite both sides seeing the other as a natural ally. The Brotherhood was forced to confiscate Hellstorm missile launchers, after which a trade deal can be formed between the two factions that is mutually beneficial to both.[39]
The Brotherhood also maintains a representative at the White Springs resort and the Responders.[40]
Organization[]
The Expeditionary Force is organized along the lines of the Lost Hills chapter and is similar to the Appalachian chapter under Taggerdy. Much like Taggerdy's the unit has also managed to restore pre-War vehicles and re-purpose them for their use, such as the armored personnel carrier.[41]
Equipment[]
The armory in Fort Atlas containing weapons and power armor
The Brotherhood arrived with a variety of weapons and equipment that they brought from Lost Hills and salvaged from military bases on their way to Appalachia. These weapons and equipment made it significantly easier to survive compared to an ordinary wastelander due to their primarily military nature. Some of these pieces of equipment found in-game are:
- T-51b power armor (used primarily by Paladin Rahmani and Knight Shin, two suits in armory of Fort Atlas)
- Automated surface to air missile systems
- Armored personnel carriers
- Laser weapons (used by Paladin Rahmani and Knight Shin as well as some high-level initiates)
- Plasma weapons (used by some high-level initiates)
- Combat armor (usually an arm brace used on initiates and hopefuls, possibility of all pieces for some high-level initiates)
- Handmade rifles (used by initiates and hopefuls)
- Pipe weapons (used by initiates and hopefuls)
- Military fatigues (worn by initiates and hopefuls along with a beret)
- Brotherhood soldier suit (worn by initiates and hopefuls along with a beret or combat helmet)
- Hellstorm missile launchers (not used in-game but mentioned in dialogue)
- Combat rifles (used by initiates and hopefuls)
Locations[]
- Fort Atlas
- Forward Station Tango
- Makeshift vault
- Watoga - Initiate Dodge (optional) and Vendor bot Phoenix
- The Whitespring Resort - Initiate Ellison and Brotherhood vendor bot
- One unnamed outpost checkpoint on the road to the north of Fort Atlas
- One unnamed outpost checkpoint on the road to the south of Fort Atlas
- One unnamed outpost checkpoint on the road southwest of the Wayward
- One unnamed outpost at downed vertibird east of Firebase Hancock
- One unnamed outpost at downed vertibird north of Drop Site V9
- One unnamed outpost checkpoint at intersection north of the Pumpkin House
- One unnamed outpost at downed vertibird in between Vault 96 and Federal Disposal Field HZ-21
- Metal Dome (rotation)
- One unnamed outpost at downed vertibird on hill south of Foundation Outpost (formerly, NPC's seem to have been removed after Eviction Notice was added)
Members[]
- Paladins
- Knights
- Knight Alan Connors
- Knight Daniel Shin3
- Knight Matthew Thornberry1
- Vault Dweller (knight-errant)2
- Scribes
- Initiates
- Doctor Solomon Hardy
- Initiate Del Lawson
- Initiate Ellison
- Initiate Erika Hewsen
- Initiate Felton Reed
- Initiate Luis Ramirez
- Initiate Nicole Gaines
- Initiate Norland
- Initiate Pappas
- Initiate Russell Dorsey
- Initiate Vernon Dodge2
- Hopefuls
- Robots
- Researchers
- Other
- Generic
- 1Formerly
- 2Optional
- 3Formerly, optional
Notes[]
- Vernon Dodge mentions that the First Expeditionary Force are more ideologically driven than the West Virginia Brotherhood under Taggerdy, who were focused mainly on survival.[42]
Appearances[]
The Brotherhood First Expeditionary Force appears only in Fallout 76. First mentioned in The Legendary Run and One Wasteland For All updates, they arrived in the region with the Steel Dawn update, and were further developed in the subsequent Steel Reign update.
Behind the scenes[]
The term "Appalachian Brotherhood" is used in official Inside the Vault articles to refer to the Brotherhood First Expeditionary Force,[Non-game 1] as well as by Knight Shin,[3] though "Appalachian Brotherhood" is also used in-game to refer to Taggerdy's original Brotherhood chapter.[43]
Gallery[]
BOS reclaimed T-60 paint
Tactical field backpack
Brotherhood scouting tower
Brotherhood barricade
Brotherhood barracks locker
References[]
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Non-game
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