The ruins of Shady Sands by 2296
 Part of a series on the |
| New California Republic |
|---|
| Government |
|
Senate · Council and President · Judiciary Office of Science and Industry · Republic Reserve |
| States and territories |
| Shady · Los Angeles · Hub · Maxson · Dayglow |
| Military |
|
NCR Army · NCR Rangers Brotherhood War (Operation: Sunburst, Battle of Griffith Observatory) · Mojave Campaign (First Battle of Hoover Dam, Second Battle of Hoover Dam) |
| Politics |
| Republican Farmer's Committee · Stockmen's Association · Agri- and Brahmin barons · Propaganda |
| Economy |
| NCR dollar · Crimson Caravan · Gun Runners · Far Go Traders · Van Graffs |
| History |
| Fall of Shady Sands · Thaler Act · New Vegas Treaty |
| Lists |
| Characters · Conflicts |
The Fall of Shady Sands was a pivotal chain of events that began in 2277 and culminated in 2283, a short time after the Second Battle of Hoover Dam.[Supplementary 1] It is mentioned in the Fallout TV series.
Order of events[]
Along with being the year of the First Battle of Hoover Dam, the stated time of the Fall of Shady Sands also occurred in the same year that Lucy MacLean claims a famine hit Vault 33 that lead to the death of her mother Rose MacLean and her father Hank MacLean becoming severely malnourished and underweight during the ensuing quarantine.[1] In truth, the "Plague of '77" served as a cover-up for Hank's departure along with members of Vault 31 "management" from the Three Vaults in order to find Rose after she discovered surface dwellers siphoning the Vault's water supply and rebelled against her husband, escaping Vault 33 with her children and fleeing into the wasteland. She later ended up in Shady Sands and met Lee Moldaver, and when Hank's group arrived in the post-War city, staunchly refused to return to the Vaults. Leaving his wife behind, Hank took his children back to Vault 33; the adolescent Lucy and her brother Norm were too young to form strong memories of the surface world at the time, so they did not question their father's lies about Rose's fate growing up.
Sometime in 2283,[2][3] months at the least up to a year at most after the pivotal events of the Second Battle of Hoover Dam in the Mojave Wasteland, a nuclear warhead was covertly delivered into a public area of Shady Sands by a brainwashed wastelander; an attempt to disarm it was foiled by a failsafe, preventing the abortion of the three-minute detonation timer. The destruction of Shady Sands was carried out by Hank, out of a combination of following Vault-Tec's mandate to erase all factionalism and ensure the world would be remade according to only their ideals, and lingering bitterness at Rose's refusal to return to Vault 33 in 2277. The nuclear event also served to conceal the truth of the prospering New California Republic from the inhabitants of both Vault 32 and 33, who continued to believe they were the inheritors of post-War America and would rebuild it themselves.[4]
A remnant of the republic's military forces eventually took shelter in the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, led by Moldaver who became known as the "Flame Mother" as she sought to restore the ruins with the unlimited power provided by cold fusion technology.[4] Other survivors found refuge in nearby settlements, with some entering into other Vaults like Vault 4, and even integrating into the ranks of powerful groups like the Brotherhood of Steel.[5][3]
Behind the scenes[]
The exact circumstances of the Fall of Shady Sands that occurred in 2277 and coined its name have yet to be officially clarified, but the provided timeline aligns with the dates for the First Battle of Hoover Dam and the intensification of the Mojave Campaign.
At release, first-time viewers assumed that the mention of the "Fall of Shady Sands" and its stated time of 2277 depicted on a blackboard timeline in Vault 4 in the episode "The Trap," coupled with an image of a nuclear explosion as the next point, meant that the capital city's destruction occurred in that year, 4 years before the events of Fallout: New Vegas in which several characters talk about Shady Sands as if it still exists as a thriving civilian hub. Todd Howard later clarified in a post-release interview for the TV series that the nuclear destruction of Shady Sands happened shortly after the Second Battle of Hoover Dam as seen in Fallout: New Vegas.[Supplementary 1]
But for anyone confused about how the city could be blown up by the time the show takes place, Howard explains all the details of the timeline should line up. “We’re careful about the timeline,” he says. “There might be a little bit of confusion in some places. But everything that happened in the previous games, including New Vegas, happened. We’re very careful about that.”
“All I can say is we’re threading it tighter there, but the bombs fall just after the events of New Vegas.””— IGNA closer approximation of the nuclear event only became available when the script for the pilot episode was released to the public, as part of the TV series' nomination for the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards. The script included both precise and general ages for the characters appearing in the episode, with the one of interest being Maximus; the script reveals that he is intended to be at the age of 19 during his first appearance in 2296 (meaning he was born in 2277), and the episode's flashback to his childhood exiting a fridge a short time after Shady Sands' destruction states that he was 6 years old then, a 13-year difference that places the approximate time of Shady Sands' destruction in 2283.[2]
Outside of the TV series, the idea of Shady Sands being destroyed by a nuclear bomb was a background event created by Chris Avellone in the early 2000s, during the development of Van Buren, the canceled Fallout 3 by Black Isle Studios.[Supplementary 2] The downfall of Shady Sands was also alluded to in unused design documents after Avellone's departure, with an explicit mention in the Boulder design document.[Non-game 1]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Fallout TV series, Season 1, Episode 4: "The Ghouls"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "The End" script: "MAXIMUS (19) is getting the shit beaten out of him, encircled by other ASPIRANTS. They wear dirty white t-shirts and khaki fatigues. [...] FLASH (102-C): A barely-conscious YOUNG MAXIMUS (6) opens the door of a fridge, half-buried in rubble."
Note: Maximus is stated to be 19 in the script, placing his date of birth in 2277. The script also identifies that the fridge scene, which is set shortly after Shady Sands was nuked, took place when he was six. This gives the year of Shady Sands' destruction as 2283. - ↑ 3.0 3.1 Fallout TV series, Season 1, Episode 6: "The Trap"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Fallout TV series, Season 1, Episode 8: "The Beginning"
- ↑ Fallout TV series, Season 1, Episode 5: "The Past"
Non-game
- ↑ Boulder Dome design document: "Four years ago, when things start to fall apart out in NCR, Presper sent out his last team of scientists and grad students. Agnes, a fellow NCR scientist and frequent diplomat from the scientific community to the government, is the leader of the expedition. Using her skills and a "diplomatic immunity" pass she carried, she makes her way to Hoover Dam. Two days later, the NCR Congress building is destroyed, presumably in a conflict with the BOS.
The destruction of the congressional building is a severe upset to NCR and travel becomes difficult. Only by circuitous routes and careful display of her pass is Agnes' expedition able to reach Hoover Dam a year later. She runs into Goddard, a former colleague (they were both scientific advisors to NCR at one point). Goddard knows Eddie Galenski, a long-haul trucker with an armored vehicle, and together the large group makes its way to Boulder Dome."
Supplementary
