The Commonwealth

[juderodney]

This isn't so much a story as a lesson on how the people of the Commonwealth live, work, and are governed. I came up with these ideas while posting a series of screen shots on the Fallout 3 Nexus.

For the past 150 years, the people living around the ruins of old Boston have managed to organize themselves in an attempt to survive in the hellish wastes of New England. The Commonwealth that they had formed still stands as a testament to the human spirit the greatness that can be achieved through cooperation.

Organization

The Council

The Commonwealth's government is a variation of a military junta. The top leadership is a military council consisting of 2 Colonels and the General or Supreme Commander of the Commonwealth Militia Corps (CMC). During times of peace, this three-man council votes to determine new regulations in which the people live by. In times of war, the General maintains total power until the fight is over.

When the General resigns or is otherwise unable to command effectively, the senior Colonel takes his place. In the case one or both of the colonels leave office, the officers of the CMC will vote on which person holding the rank of Major as a replacement. All other promotions among the officers are at the sole discretion of the Council.

The Judiciary

While the Council makes up the executive and the legislative of the government, the judicial is handled by a separate branch known as the Militia Adjudicator's Office (MAO). This branch operates independently of the Council and acts as a check against them. To maintain this independence, all members of the MAO relinquish all rank and title in the CMC and gain a new a new rank of either Magister, Justice, or Adjudicator. The MAO is overseen by a High Adjudicator who is over all the Commonwealth save the Supreme Commander. Only in very specific situations does the High Adjudicator answer to the Supreme Commander.

Magisters handle minor crimes like petty theft or simple assault. They also decide if more serious crimes should go to trial, where an Adjudicator will preside. Magisters also act as prosecutors and defense attorneys during these trials. The High Adjudicator only preside over cases of treason, or cases involving members of the council.

When the two Colonels of the Council question the General's fitness to lead, the High Adjudicator may hear their case and rule to remove the General from command. This is an extreme risk for the Colonels, as if the High Adjudicator decides not to hear their argument or rules against them, the Colonels must leave office and go into exile. If the High Adjudicator does rule in their favor, then it is the General that is exiled. This is to prevent the members of the council from abusing their offices in a variety of manners.

The Institute

The Institute is a sealed environment within the ruins of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Within its halls, scientists work to preserve, maintain, and even improve technology for the time when mankind rises again. Many experiments including cybernetics, medicine, and armaments are conducted on almost a daily basis. The most senior scientists in each field of study form the Board of Directors. The chairman of the Board is known as the Head of Projects, and gives final authorization for any experiment to proceed.

Although the Institute is sealed, it is by no means impregnable or completely self-sufficient. It cannot be stressed enough this little fact: The Institute is not a part of the Commonwealth and do not answer to its government in anyway. Instead, the Institute and the Commonwealth have entered into a mutually beneficial agreement with each other. The Commonwealth needs the Institute's technology; the Institute needs the Commonwealth's ability to gather resources. The Institute also has the right to test the citizens of the Commonwealth to see if any are able to learn the sciences and become a member.

The People

The Citizenry

As a way for the Council to control the population, all citizens are considered a part of the CMC. Every able-bodied man, woman, and child trains for battle, owns their own weapons and armor, and must take up arms in defense of the Commonwealth when called upon to do so. Outside of battle, they conduct a relatively normal existence. Most citizens live in small settlements of less than 50 people scattered around what used to be Quincy and Cambridge. Nearly 1,000 people reside what is now known as Fort Quincy, the Commonwealth's seat of government. Fort Quincy and every other settlement are walled off using various forms of ramshackle fortifications and guard towers to protect the people from raiders, slavers, and some of the larger beasts that roam the wastes.

The Officers

Although the Officer classes of the Commonwealth are a privileged lot, their titles are not hereditary. It is true that while most officers came from parents that were also officers, it is not uncommon for an officer to come from the ranks of the ordinary citizens. Officers are considered full-time soldiers so have no place in the day-to-day affairs of the Commonwealth. Instead, they take a role in politics by voting for the Colonels of the Council and acting as officials for the settlements they are assigned to.

There is one Lieutenant for every settlement and one Captain for every two Lieutenants. Sometimes a settlement may have enough people to require a second Lieutenant. Fort Quincy itself holds as many as twenty Lieutenants at any one time. The Commonwealth is divided into four districts, each commanded by a Major. The total number of Lieutenants and Captains ultimately varies by the number and size of settlements.

Slavery

The first and greatest right given by the Commonwealth Charter is "No citizen of the Commonwealth shall ever become a slave." This, however, had not stopped anyone from using non-citizens in the slave trade. Slave traders and their caravans are routinely inspected for Commonwealth Citizens among the slaves. To make themselves identifiable, each citizen is given a tattoo of the Seal of the Commonwealth on the back of their neck. Any slaver caught with a citizen as a slave will be stripped of all their assets and sent away with only the shirts on their backs (their pants are a different matter, however). Any resistance offered automatically authorizes the militia to use lethal force, which most soldiers do gleefully.

Slaves are usually involved in caring for Brahmin herds, tearing down structures within the Boston ruins for necessary resources, or to offer the officers "comfort". Some slaves may prove themselves worthy and become, themselves, full citizens of the Commonwealth. However only four slaves have ever been able to achieve that.

Special Groups

Although the Citizens must maintain their own equipment, the scientists at the Institute have seen fit to equip three elite units in order to improve overall combat effectiveness. Like the officers, these are full-time soldiers and are specially trained for combat situations.

MASS

The Military Administrative Supervisory Section (MASS) constitutes the Commonwealth's law enforcement arm. MASS consists of eight five-man teams, two belonging to each of the four districts. The MASS has been known for the use of brutal tactics in arresting citizens and using torture to extract confessions has people cowering in fear whenever they are around. Captains and Lieutenants are also wary around them as these enforcers of justice answer directly to the district's Major.

MAT

Each district also maintains a Mobile Assistance Team (MAT). Each MAT consists of a small number of off-road vehicles for the purposes of extraction, fire support, and transportation of troops to a selected battlefield. Unlike MASS, they exist within the normal chain of command and are respected and loved by most.

ERG

Certain individuals that volunteer may be selected by the Institute itself to join the Expeditionary Reconnaissance Group (ERG). The ERG consists of four five man-teams who scout the wastes, often leaving Commonwealth territory for days to assess and even eliminate growing threats to its sovereignty and securing popular trade routes.

Unlike the rest of the CMC, the ERG answers directly to the Institute, but may fall under the jurisdiction of the MAO in certain cases. They are also the only ones who do not fear the MASS. The MASS has taken this as a lack of proper respect and a bitter rivalry exists between the two units. The ERG have used MAT teams on numerous occasions and have been more than gracious for the assistance.

Edited February 5, 2015 by juderodney

[juderodney]

The Formation

 

In the fifty years after the bombs fell, the survivors barely managed to survive. Small groups huddled in whatever shelter they could find. A few bolder people tried to start settlements, but most of these were destroyed by various raider, slaver, and cannibal groups. The ruins of Cambridge, however, housed the sealed, underground laboratory complex below what was left of the Massachusetts Institute of technology. Content to continue experiments in peace, no outsiders were let in and any who tried to force the issue were quickly cut down by the automatic defenses.

 

All that changed in 2128 when a mercenary group "Black Mountain" led by Colonel Nicolas Baker found their way from the south to Quincy in an attempt to find a place to camp on the way to old New York to find new work. Baker had been to Boston as a boy before the bombs fell and remembered vividly as the Red Socks defeated the Chicago Cubs in game 5 of the World Series. As the area near the Boston ruins was on the way to New York he decided to lead the crew there for a little bit of nostalgia.

 

It did not take long until the locals found their way to their camp seeking refuge. After discovering from them the situation, Col. Baker decided the best way to help these downtrodden people was to teach them how to protect themselves. While some of the mercenaries in the group decided not to stay around and continued on to their destination. Most of the group stayed with the Colonel and settle down.

 

The first Col. Baker did was order the construction of fortifications around the camp's perimeter before any combat training could be done. The next two years proved to be the hardest for everyone. Attacks on the new fort came regularly with the mercenaries doing the brunt for the fighting. On top of that, they had to manage food supplies through scavenging and hunting the various wasteland animals that had in the past been preying on humans. This made for the first opportunity to test the locals' new skills. With the locals now doing the hunting, their confidence boosted considerably.

 

Eventually, the time came to take on the humans who had terrorized the locals for far too long. After a series of battles, most of the raider and slaver presence had been driven out of the area. However the cost in lives was heavy. Col. Baker himself fell during an ambush on a cannibal sect. To this day he is revered as the greatest hero of the Commonwealth.

 

With Col. Baker dead, command fell to Captain Brent Snoweagle, Baker's second-in-command. Under his leadership, the newly created militia group became reorganized as the Commonwealth through the Great Charter. Ten years later, now Gen. Snoweagle was able to make contact with the Institute and was able to come to an agreement in better equipping the militia and finding new resources for scientific investigation. Although the next century-and-a-half would not be easy, the Commonwealth would slowly increase its size to become the dominant force in the area.