Midwestern Brotherhood of Steel

Overview

The Midwestern Brotherhood of Steel is a splinter group of the original Brotherhood of Steel, headquartered in the outskirts of the ruins of Chicago and control large areas of the former states of Illinois and Kansas. They have many ideological differences with the Brotherhood, and consider themselves autonomous from, but allies with, the other chapters.

History

Origins

After the defeat of the Master and his mutant army, the original Brotherhood found themselves at odds, with a need for new members to refill their numbers versus their code of isolationism and technological secrecy. The Elders eventually ruled against sharing technology with the outside the world, fearing another conflict like the one with the Master.

To further quell the minority dissenting opinion, the Elders ordered the construction of a fleet of airships and dispatched those dissenters eastward, to track down and assess the extent of the remaining super mutant threat. As they travels over the "great mountains" (the Rocky Mountains), the fleet ran into a severe storm, losing all but the main airship. Badly damaged, the surviving members kept the ship aloft until it finally crashed in the outskirts of the ruins of Chicago. They eventually founded their headquarters at a former military bunker, renaming it Bunker Alpha (further established bases were named in the same military lingo).

Expansion

Ideological Differences

The Midwestern Brotherhood was founded due to a minority of the Brotherhood of Steel abdicating for amending the Brotherhood's doctrine of technological secrecy in favor of opening up recruiting to outsiders. They believe that the Brotherhood should be more public in the world, and embrace an expansionist mentality, using superior technology to increase their areas of control. By offering protection to local settlements, the Brotherhood is compensated with food, materials, and recruits.

Another difference between the Midwestern Brotherhood and their coastal counterparts, is their attitude towards non-humans. While the original Brotherhood only recruits non-irradiated humans, the Midwestern Brotherhood has been known to have squads comprised of outside humans, ghouls, sentient deathclaws, super mutants, and robots.

Ranks

The Midwestern Brotherhood, like with their ideology, have a ranking system different from the Brotherhood on the west and east coasts. Scribes have the roles of both scientists and engineers, taking the latter duties that are traditional to Knights. Due to this, Midwestern Knights are just a military rank lower than Paladins, and are not allowed to wear power armor. The Commanding Officer is the military leader of the Midwestern Brotherhood and the only rank higher than General. The Commanding Officer is selected from one of the Generals (only a General can become the CO) by the Midwestern Elders, who are the leaders and thinkers of all decisions.

Civilian

• Civilian
• Scribe
• Elder

Military

• Initiate
• Senior Initiate
• Squire
• Senior Squire
• Junior Knight
• Knight
• Senior Knight
• Knight Commander
• Junior Paladin
• Paladin
• Paladin Commander
• Paladin Lord
• General
• Commanding Officer
• Elder

Squads

The military of the Midwestern Brotherhood operates as small, versatile squads, rarely having more than 10 members each. There are a few more notable and accomplished squads that are well known throughout the area.

• Brimstone Squad - the best and most experienced squad of the Midwestern Brotherhood. They served as General Simon Barnaky's personal guard.
• Dagger Squad - one of the elite and most famous squads of the Brotherhood, Dagger Squad accompanied the Warrior on the assault of Vault 0.
• Demon Squad - a backup support squad for Brimstone.
• Falcon Squad - in charge of protecting the former city of Great Bend.
• Fang Squad - deployed in the city of St. Louis; ambushed and killed by super mutant army.
• Grail Squad - accompanied the Warrior in an assault on the Buena Vista nuclear power plant.
• Repo Squad - a squad dedicated to the secure transportation of acquired technology.
• Shadow Squad - battle squad stationed in Kansas City.
• Smear Squad - battle squad stations in Kansas City and then Great Bend, to protect the areas from the Calculator's robots.
• Talon Squad - one of the squads dispatched to St. Louis to protect General Barnaky; was the only squad to survive the ambush by the super mutant army.
• Tusk Squad - followed the Warrior, along with Dagger Squad, on the assault of the Calculator at Vault 0.
• Urban Squad - an intelligence squad dedicated to covert and reconnaissance operations.

Bases of Operations

There are five major bases of operations for the Midwestern Brotherhood, each named using old military lingo taken from the Greek alphabet.

Bunker Alpha

The headquarters of the Midwestern Brotherhood, Bunker Alpha was the first base set up after the crash landing of the airship in the outskirts of Chicago. It is a refurbished military bunker dating before the Great War, containing special resources to construct new power armor as well as holding classified information, such as the locations of Vault 0 and other nearby military bunkers. It is also the training ground of "The Warrior", a tribal outsider who rose to the rank of General of the Midwestern Brotherhood by eliminating the threats around the nearby wastelands.

Bunker Beta

Located near the former towns of Galesburg or Monmouth, west of the Chicago area, Bunker Alpha was a pre-war military bunker reconstructed during the Brotherhood's expansion westward. General Simon Barnaky, the founder of the Midwestern Brotherhood, stationed himself here after moving from Bunker Alpha, before moving again to Bunker Gamma.

Bunker Gamma

Bunker Gamma was founded after the Brotherhood defeated the psychic gang known as the "Beastlords", and moved south to expand their area of operations. This was the last location of Simon Barnaky before he was captured and taken prisoner by Toccomatta.

Bunker Delta

The bunker was taken over, and made into the command center, by the Brotherhood in 2197 when General Dekker defeated Gammorin and his super mutant army. After the war against the Calculator, Dekker moved the command center again, this time to Bunker Epsilon.

Bunker Epsilon

Located in western Kansas, near the Colorado border, Bunker Epsilon was established by General Dekker after the defeat of Reaver cult and the integration of the survivors into the Midwestern Brotherhood. The bunker was set up as the base of operations for the Brotherhood's campaign against the Calculator at Vault 0.