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Fallout Factions: The Enclave - History

  • Member
    May 9, 2016

    Enigmatic and dangerous, the Enclave is another iconic faction of the Fallout universe. While those who are new to the series will often look at the covers of the Fallout games, see each picture of power armor and think "Brotherhood", the menacing helmet that appears on the cover of Fallout 2 actually belongs to a set of Enclave power armor. Who are the Enclave? They were originally a secret organization of powerful politicians, and military leaders, top scientists and visionary industrialists who worked behind the scenes to direct United States interests.

    I. Pre-War, ?-2077

    Like the Brotherhood of Steel, the Enclave's roots are Pre-War. Their exact origins are unknown. It is possible, even likely, that they existed as early as 2063, though it may not have been in the exact form of "the Enclave". A group of pre-War conspiracy theorists calling themselves "Quaere Verum" suspected the existence of the secret society, and one of their members, a man named Reid Underwood, first mentions them in April of 2063. They were unable to prove the existence of the group, though. Later, the Enclaves own records tell us that they foresaw the inevitable nuclear war, and made preparations. At some point, they took control of Project Safehouse, the Vault-Tec operation building state-of-the-art fallout shelters across America. This may have been as early as the 2050s, but the exact time is, again, unknown. Initially they intended to repurpose the Vaults into a series of social experiments, designed to test humanity's limits in a confining conditions...such as a space craft carrying them away from a destroyed world, to a new one. To this end, only a handful of Vaults were designed to function correctly.

    Ultimately, the Enclave ran out of time to construct a ship capable of ferrying humans to another world, and abandoned the initiative, but left the Vaults just as they were. In March of 2077, when it was clear that war was on the horizon, the President and other Enclave members evacuated to their own private shelters around the globe, including a Poseidon Oil derrik in the Pacific Ocean, where they remained until the bombs fell.

    II. 2077-2140

    The Enclave made the Poseidon oil rig their main base of operations. From their they witnessed the United States burn, and following the destruction, claimed themselves as the continuance of the U.S. government, and full authority over the wasteland that remained. From Poseidon they maintained control over many of the vaults and their monitoring systems from there. The extent of their control and ability to observe is unclear. In this way they continued their experiments. To what end is unclear; perhaps they envisioned weeding out the weak in anticipation of reinhabiting and reclaiming the United States. Seventeen years after the war, they sent the all-clear signal to Vault 8, but still did not make their presence known, nor would they for another half century.

    III. 2140-2220, President Richardson

    When the surviving Enclave finally became aware of survivors on the continent they viewed them as mutants...and obstacles to reclaiming and repopulating the U.S. The Enclave quickly established a policy of extermination towards all that they labeled "mutant," and not even the relatively pure inhabitants of the vaults were safe from the designation. In response to this perceived threat, the Enclave restarted it's research and development efforts, focusing on producing and improving power armor. They also used the only Vertibird VTOL aircraft prototypes known to survive the war to produce their own fleet of transports.

    IV. 2220-2242, President Dick Richardson

    Around that time, the son of the previous President, Congressman Dick Richardson was elected. The militarization of the Enclave was completed scant months after his election, and he would go on to serve for five terms with that power at his disposal. They experimented on some of the mutated wildlife, attempting to create domesticated Deathclaws to use as shock troops.

    The Enclaves attention was completely refocused after discovering the ruins of the Mariposa Military Base and the FEV still buried there. Using slaves from the nearby settlements, the Enclave excavated and obtained samples of the FEV, though they were forced to abandon the base when their workers (turned into Super Mutants by their own exposure to the FEV) turned against them.

    With the samples they had, they were able to produce a serum that would be fatal to be mutants, and harmless to unmutated subjects, which they intended to use globally to extinguish the "mutant threat". The oil rig, where the serum was produced and prepared to be distributed, was infiltrated by a tribal known as The Chosen One, who assassinated President Richardson and caused the rig to go into a nuclear self-destruct, preventing the extermination.

    V. 2242-2277, John Henry Eden

    At another Enclave facility on the East Coast, near the ruins of Washington D.C., a new president was "elected", who called himself John Henry Eden. Eden contacted the survivors of the Enclave in the west and ordered them to regroup at Raven Rock, his base in D.C. It was a facility with a wealthy stockpile of materials and resources, with the ability to manufacture more.

    Once joined by the West Coast survivors, Raven Rock set about rebuilding the Enclave's military strength, while going back into the quiet obscurity they had before leaving the oil rig. Eden manufactured a line of Eyebots to release into the Wasteland to gather intelligence and spread propaganda; the robots would broadcast a perpetual message to any who could hear them, promising a reborn America under the leadership of this unknown president.

    The Enclave didn't attempt to expand again for three decades. In 2277, when the defunct Project Purity water purification system was reactivated, the Enclave was drawn out of the shadows. They seized the Jefferson Memorial, where the purifier had been built. Unwilling to turn it over to be used as bargaining chip, the purifier's creator turned it on prematurely, damaging it and flooding the control chamber with radiation. Without the means to repair it, the Enclave was forced to track the Lone Wanderer from Vault 101, who had learned how to get the purifier working. Once the Lone Wanderer had the vital component, a G.E.C.K (Garden of Eden Creation Kit), the Enclave captured them and took them to Raven Rock.

    There, President Eden tried to convince the Lone Wanderer that the wasteland needed to be purged of mutation, and to use a surviving strain of the modified FEV to poison the water purifier, which would kill any mutants, human or otherwise, in the D.C. wasteland.

    Ultimately, though, Raven Rock was destroyed by means unknown, and the President with it. The surviving Enclave commander, Colonel Autumn, activated the purifier as it was meant to work, but the Enclave defenses around the purifier were smashed by an assault by the D.C. Chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel. Following this defeat, the Enclave were driven back to their mobile crawler base at Adams Air Force base. This, too, is now presumed destroyed, and it is currently unknown what remains of the Enclave.

    Sources: In-game texts/dialogue; Fallout 1,2,3 and New Vegas, Brotherhood and Fallout Bible