A city being destroyed by a massive number of bombs.
The Great War (not to be confused with World War I), started (and ended) on October 23rd, 2077. It is not known, however, who launched the first nuclear weapon, although it is implied by President Dick Richardson in his discussion with theChosen One that it was the Chinese; "...and then those damn Reds launched". It lasted two hours, but was unbelievably destructive. More energy was released in the early moments of The Great War than all previous conflicts in the history of the world combined. Although lasting a very short time, this is appreciated as World War IV given the mass destruction of the Earth and most of its inhabitants, World War III being the Resource Wars and the US/China war.
战争爆发前
由于能源的紧缺, [中国]]出兵入侵阿拉斯加, 美国北上吞并加拿大. 中东提高油价又引起欧洲共和国出兵进攻. 此时的联合国试图控制局势, 却导致众多的成员国退出, 不出两个月, 联合国便被迫解散. 这一段时期被称为能源战争. 除了大国之外, 小国家间又因为种种因素而爆发冲突. 最后, 能源战争结束于全球核战争.
The Great War
在核战争开始的两小时内, 所有拥有核武器的国家(主要是美国, 中国以及苏联)毫无保留的倾泻出自己的储备. 这以后,世界就陷入了启示录般的黑暗时代.
在美国, 西海岸是首先受袭的地方, 而东海岸由于稍晚受袭(大约9:48, 辐射3中所有时钟均停在这一时刻), 使得更多的人能躲进避难所或其他掩体而保住性命.
两小时的核战争中, 世界地图几乎要被改写. 无论山脉丘陵都在核武器的巨大破坏力下发生了变化. 而河流与海洋则受到了严重的放射性污染, 遍布全球的放射尘给地球带来了长时间的[1], 生态系统濒临崩溃边缘.
The aftermath
However, despite the global destruction, many areas remained habitable. Humans were in some parts able to continue living in the ruins, establishing communities and even cities (Vault City did so with the help of GECK). Some major cities were not completely destroyed in the explosions, and areas such as Washington DC had intact buildings. However, most streets were and continue to be blocked with rubble. This creates a challenge when moving around above ground. Many of the Metro systems remained intact, while some were blocked, they remain the easiest way to move around Washington D.C.
In Fallout 3, various human remains look as though they could be pre-war, and can be found in the the various Metro tunnels, along with old beds and desks. This may imply that some citizens tried to live out their lives underground. This could also explain how several above-ground communities re-started, as any humans on the surface would have been annihilated by the nuclear blasts, thus the underground settlers could then begin rebuilding communities (this however, remains as a theory only). It is also possible that a large number of the feral ghouls that roam the sewer systems were also products of these doomed attempts to rebuild civilization. Around a week after the initial nuclear explosions, rain started to fall, however none of it was drinkable. The rain was black; tainted with soot, ash, radiation plus various other chemicals found in nuclear weapons. This marked the start of fallout. The rain lasted days, killing thousands of species, be they animal, plant or micro-organisms. Those who survived after the rain were left to the now barren Wastelands, where nearly all plant life had died from the intense radiation.
Preventable Deaths
Citizens did not heed the air raid sirens, as they believed it was just another drill. The Vaults sealed themselves in (not including Vault 12, which was never intended to shut) as the Earth burned. A few citizens that took the air raid sirens seriously, but did not have access to vaults, made their way to various locations that they felt would be safe from the bombs, like sewers and subway stations, fallout shelters (which were incomparable in regards of protection compared to the vaults), or in the case of the Keller Family, the National Guard Depot. However, without a very strong outter shield to defend them from both the blast and the heat of the blast (such as Lamplight Caverns or Raven Rock), very few would survive, and a few became ghouls, and these ghouls, in turn, formed their own communities. The US Government likely maintained a presence separate from the Enclave on the mainland following the war, as various signs of failed cleanup attempts can be found in the Capital Wasteland. It would seem that some families actually survived a couple of years in drainage centers, as seen after activating the radio signal Oscar Zulu, when it is revealed that Bob Anderstien needed help for his family. Those who had already earned their admission into the Vaults went into them. Those who did not, however, were left to the mercy of the bombs and their own nearby fallout shelters. A female ghoul named Carol (the mother of Gob, the bartender in Megaton) in Underworld in Fallout 3 claims "My family did not have much money, so we could not get into a vault." It seems only the moderately wealthy could buy their way into a Vault at the time of The Great War (likely due to the enormous cost of the Vault projects), though, according to letters discovered in mailboxes, many of those who could afford it were not granted space, due to the lack of time Vault-Tec had to build. This is because Washington D.C.'s Vaults were filled to capacity, while Vaults located in states like Oklahoma were nearly unoccupied.
Notes
- It could be possible that the aliens are in fact responsible for the war because of their inquiries into the launch codes of American nuclear warheads. This knowledge comes from one of the many alien captive recordings (log 17). This, however, is open to interpretation.
- It is also believed that the bombs dropped somewhere around 10:47 EST, as every single clock in Fallout 3 is stopped at that time.