A map of New Texas at the start of the RP with factions and spheres of influence.
Fight for Survival was a forum-based RP which tied into the Fallout universe. Loosely connected to the events of the New Vegas LP, the RP takes place in the Texas region, where multiple Vaults, tribes, and other factions vied for control. Events would cause the various groups to gather under opposing leaders Natasha "Isis" Smiles and Ryan Haze, eventually leading to a battle that decided the fate of the region.
Participating Members and their Main Characters[]
- BrainyLark - Willis (Will) Johnson
- CrimsontheWolf - Alandorn ProudClaw
- Jackman1st - Jonathan Charles
- Jetblaze - Varian Wrynn
- K1ngLemon - Ryan Haze (Deceased)
- Kazoax - Alexis Persona (Deceased)
- Kimarous - Nathaniel Locke (Deceased)
- makmix - Mack Copata
- Naughty_Ranko - Natasha Smiles a.k.a "Isis" (Deceased)
Plot Synopsis[]
Arrival in New Texas[]
The majority of the main protagonists arrived in Texas at approximately the same time. Two were already present. Nathaniel Locke was an officer at the military Camp Sigma of Vault 52, whose inhabitants were aggressive scavengers for the most part. As part of an experiment their Vault hadn’t been finished pre-war and thus they were in a constant supply shortage and resorting to raids of lone caravans and travellers. The Knights of England under their Prince Jonathan Charles had arrived earlier and built a fortress among the ruins of San Antonio which they dubbed ‘New Alamo’. They had forged an alliance with the NCR. A ranger scouting party under command of NCR Captain Varian Wrynn entered Texas from the west to make contact with their new allies. The Legion also established a presence in the region through veteran assassin Ryan Haze, after forging an alliance with Vault 52.
Natasha Smiles, a down on her luck former employee of the Cat’s Paw in New Reno, arrived via the Texas Caravan Cross in search for work and set out for Houston. Shortly behind her was a ghoul mercenary who had also recently arrived in Texas named Willis Johnson. At the same time two Vault 52 scavengers broke into a secret Vault-Tech research facility and accidentally released a pre-war survivor. Master Sergeant Alandorn ProudClaw of the U.S. military had been surgically altered into a hybrid between man and wolf. Confused and lost after 200 years in a cryogenic storage tank, he collected his gear and headed off into the Texas Wasteland.
The Battle of Camp Sigma[]
Although a minor skirmish at best, the Battle of Camp Sigma derives it’s importance from the fact that it was here that all the important figures first converged. While travelling to their respective destinations Natasha and Willis were captured by Vault 52 scouting parties and brought to Camp Sigma to be sold as slaves. Ryan Haze arrived to pick up Natasha under orders from Caesar himself who was prepared to pay a hefty sum for her.
Wrynn’s squad had gotten wind of the deal and also taken up the trail of Natasha Smiles. When the Captain spotted one of the most important men of the Legion from a distance, the NCR soldiers opened fire on the camp from the west. While this was going on, Alandorn wandered into the camp from the east. Frightened by his appearance, the Vault 52 personnel opened fire on him. Amidst the confusion Natasha managed to escape her captors and freed Willis. Using the ghoul’s expertise in demolition charges, the duo escaped through the southern barricade and separated after only a brief exchange to avoid pursuit. Alandorn likewise took a chance and fled the scene through the destroyed barricade. Wrynn and Haze engaged in a brief fight until Legion reinforcements arrived. Having lost their commanding officer and perceiving an assault from two sides, the Vault 52 soldiers retreated along with the Legion.
In the aftermath Wrynn claimed the site for the NCR and renamed the camp ‘Lone Wolf City’, hoping that NCR settlers would eventually make it a real town. Jonathan Charles and his Knights never made it to the battle and their alliance with the NCR was subsequently dissolved. Nobody heard from them after that and the ‘New Alamo’ seems to have been abandoned.
Natasha Smiles resumed her way east, encountering a scout from the Brood of Sekhmet who brought her to their home at BayC. The Brood was a tribal community of warrior women comparable to that of the ancient amazons. During a dispute over the fate of a male slave Natasha was challenged to a duel by one of their warriors. Not realizing the importance of it, she chose an ancient artefact as her weapon, the Goddess Glove. Pre-war it had been a unique prototype of Power Fist developed by the military. After verifying her DNA, the Glove ‘bonded’ with it’s wielder and called her Isis. After winning the fight, Sekhmet revealed that the wielder chosen by the Goddess Glove was the leader of the Brood and Isis part of their most important prophecy. With the Goddess Glove Isis would have the power to either destroy or save the world.
The precise nature of the prophecy and Natasha’s aptitude for wielding the Goddess Glove has never been fully explained, though it can be speculated that she was a descendant of one of the original volunteers from the military program. Natasha herself had a hard time to come to terms with her new identity, but eventually took up the name for the benefit of her people. Caesar evidently knew about the prophecy to which Haze was also an integral part. Whether Wrynn’s superiors had any knowledge of the prophecy remains unclear, though it would explain President Kimball’s interest in her. Wrynn himself probably only sought to pull her on his side against the Legion.
Willis made his way to Shining Meadows, a city surrounded by radiation and thus only inhabitable by ghouls. He had a Jet addiction and to pay for the drug he sought out the elusive ‘Mr. Grey’ for work, who tasked him with eliminating three of his enemies. During his investigation he learned that Mr. Grey was controlling the ghoul population of his domain via altering the chemical components of the Jet, thus making them unable to think for themselves. Putting the moral choice over his own addiction, he refused to kill the three innocent men and fled from Shining Meadows.
The Three-Way Stand-Off at BayC[]
Natasha had little time to get used to the idea of leadership, before her skills were put to the test for the first time. Haze still hadn’t given up on her and brought almost a thousand legionnaires to BayC, slaughtering their warriors as he went. With NCR reinforcements Wrynn had also come to the city. Realizing that BayC didn’t stand a chance against such forces, Natasha resorted to guile. A distress call was sent to the Brotherhood, luring them with the Goddess Glove as bait. Natasha was approached by the NCR, but flat out refused a proposed alliance with them, shutting the city gates in Wrynn’s face. The plan was to stall for time, while neither Haze nor Wrynn would turn their backs toward each other and thus BayC would be safe. It worked, though not quite as planned. Indignant of Natasha’s harsh refusal, the NCR forces withdrew in a huff. Wrynn even approached Haze personally and told him to do what he wanted. Utterly bewildered by the NCR’s withdrawal, Haze surmised that Natasha had a secret weapon at her disposal and broke off the siege. The population of BayC celebrated their Queen Isis for driving back, not only one, but two superior forces without even engaging them in battle.
During his flight from Shining Meadows, Willis had a run-in with several Deathclaws. He survived the encounter, but was severely wounded and later picked up by Brood scouts. Similarly Alandorn, still confused as to what was going on, also stumbled into BayC’s neighbourhood and was apprehended by Brood warriors. After having received Natasha’s distress call, the Brotherhood of Steel became involved in matters. They recalled Paladin Alexis Persona from Claw’s Death Outpost and sent him to BayC to investigate. Natasha used the opportunity to negotiate an alliance with the Brotherhood. She turned over Alandorn and a disk of unimportant data from the Glove in exchange for a military alliance and the help of their doctors with the Brood’s problems.
Texas Divided – The Forming of New Nations[]
While Isis worked on strengthening the Brood, Ryan Haze began his insurrection against the Legion. Renaming his force to the Black Titans he marched onto Caesar’s main camp and dropped a tactical nuke from before the war on his former comrades. In the ensuing fight he came face to face with Caesar and killed him.
After saving Will’s life with the Goddess Glove and enlisting his help for weapons training, Natasha set out for Houston in hopes of making a trade agreement with the Wasteland Defense Militia. At this point it would seem that Varian Wrynn had begun a personal vendetta against Smiles due to a comment she had made at BayC that would cloud his judgement for the days to come. They both engaged in a lengthy public debate in front of the Houston citizens, Wrynn arguing the glories of democracy and Smiles the independence and safety of Texas. The crowd ultimately sided with Isis and the NCR military was forced to retreat, when she brought in Brotherhood reinforcements. Wrynn got off one shot, however, at a civilian woman who could only be saved by Isis and the Goddess Glove.
Though Wrynn claimed that it was personal and had nothing to do with the NCR, with this one act he had dashed any public trust the citizens of Texas might have held for the NCR up to this point, especially when he was later promoted and put in charge of all Texas operations and never faced with charges for his crime from the side of his superiors. It can be argued that it was this alienation from the rest of Texas that drove him into an alliance with Haze and the Black Titans.
On the other side Texas national spirits soared as the Wasteland Defense Militia, hitherto only a loose confederation of Houston and her outlying areas, joined the Brood to create the New Texas Alliance under Queen Isis. Her alliance with the Brotherhood only grew stronger, when Dr. Fergusson of the Brotherhood resolved the issue of BayC’s poisoned water supply and Alandorn officially joined the Brotherhood. During this time Willis made a concerted effort to overcome his Jet addiction, supported by the Brood warrior Penthalisia who started to develop feelings for the ghoul. Deep Down Radio was the first Vault to join the Alliance, changing their name to New Texas Radio. Wrynn, Haze and Smiles would often give speeches that were broadcast across Texas during this time.
Texas United – The Frontier War[]
Texas at the onset of the Frontier War
At this point a fragile balance of power was established in the Texas Wasteland. Isis and the Brotherhood had drawn a line in the sand to halt the expansionist tendencies of the NCR and the Titans. This far and no further. In the west stood Wrynn and Haze, who had reunited with his ex-wife. For a while this seemed to temper his aggression, but ultimately with work on his new secret weapon completed he returned to his old ways. When he established his New World Republic with himself as the leader, he also vowed to destroy all in his way. They had formidable military strongholds at Lone Wolf and Mt. Eagle, but no public support from the inhabitants of Texas.
What sparked the inevitable war was a border incident concerning a lost Brotherhood scouting party. Haze and Wrynn investigated Outcast attacks in the region and blamed them on the Brotherhood of Steel. At the same time Natasha, Alandorn and Alexis also looked into the incident. It has never been fully explained what happened to the Brotherhood scouts. They had either been killed or joined the Outcasts and as these things go, each side blamed the other.
Returning to BayC in a hurry, Natasha was greeted with the sight of hundreds of refugees from the remaining two Vaults, among them Nathaniel Locke’s widow still clinging to the body of her dead baby. This sight infuriated Isis, who had lost a child herself in the past, and spurned her into the final confrontation. In her final radio broadcast she called all of Texas to war and began the march west. Initially Isis chose Lone Wolf City as the easier target that would hopefully draw Haze from his mountain fortress into the open field. It was then, however, that the weight of his past decisions came crushing down on Varian Wrynn. He approached the army of Queen Isis and the NCR forces joined ranks with the swelling Alliance army for the final assault.
Under the cover of night Wrynn, Willis and Penthalisia infiltrated Mt. Eagle and destroyed the secret weapon, kicking off the battle of Mt. Eagle. With the final battle upon him, Haze evacuated his pregnant wife and son from the site. With numbers now on their side, the Alliance launched an all-out three-pronged assault on the fortress. NCR engaging from the west, Brotherhood from the east and the Brood from the south. Alexis Persona, who had been promoted to Sentinel, died in the battle, heroically sacrificing his own life for Natasha Smiles. Isis fought her way to the centre and faced Haze in single combat. She was severely injured during the fight, but Haze was killed by the Goddess Glove’s self-destruct system.
Aftermath[]
The New Texas Alliance had won the day and arose as an independent nation from the rubble of the Frontier War. Queen Isis would rule for another three years, before succumbing to her injuries. Cornelia Carrson, the woman she had saved in Houston, would be elected as the governor of New Texas.
With both Haze and Caesar dead the Legion was shattered. The NCR withdrew from Texas soil and acknowledged the Alliance as a sovereign state. Wrynn retired soon after and settled down in Lone Wolf City. Alandorn stayed with the Brotherhood who began to attempt in earnest to build a future with their Alliance allies.
Willis and Penthalisia married and settled down in Houston. Rivalries between the Vaults have reemerged, but so far the New Texas Alliance remains unified.
The RP ended with the same quote from the Fallout series that had started it: “War never changes.”