Chapter 3 - Brotherhood of Steel (West Coast)
A wise soldier knows that it isn't the weapon that matters most, but the hand that wields it. An army equipped with the finest weapons certainly has the advantage in battle, but what happens when the battle is over? Over the millennia, the tools of war have changed. From bronze to iron then steel, and eventually plutonium - mankind grows ever more capable of waging war, and always less capable of using those weapons responsibly. There are those who feel that no one is responsible enough to wield power such as mankind had during the Great War. And then there are those who feel that they alone are worthy.
Travelers and merchants in the wasteland have seen towering soldiers in suits of metal armor, marching off to battle with laser rifles slung over their shoulders. These are members of the Brotherhood of Steel, and it is easy to distinguish them from other armored warriors by their pre-war power armor. Those T-51 b armored suits aren't just plates of metal strapped to their bodies.
No, the Brotherhood of Steel's armor is a fusion powered artifact designed before the Great War; it augments their strength, protects them from harm, and marks them as members of an elite order.
The Brotherhood of Steel is among the most technologically advanced factions that the Wasteland holds. They are relatively few in number when compared to vast armies like the New California Republic or the Legion, but what the Brotherhood lacks in numbers they make up for in raw power and indomitable courage.
The Brotherhood can trace its history back to the Great War. Long before the military base in Mariposa California gave rise to the Super Mutant army, it was a research facility. In the days leading up to the Great War there was a small contingent of soldiers assigned to guard the base and its loathsome contents. That loyal band of men didn't know they were protecting a horribly unethical group of scientists who were engaging in unfathomable experiments, they only knew that it was an important project and that they there were doing their part to fight the good fight and keep their country safe.
Eventually, they did learn the awful truth of the Forced Evolutionary Virus and that the base they were guarding was being used to experiment on human test subjects, inmates from military prisons. The knowledge that they unknowingly participated in these atrocities, committed on their own brothers in arms no less, stretched their loyalty to the breaking point. Colonel Spindel, their commanding officer was unable to cope with this fact. Just a few days after the truth was revealed, he committed suicide, leaving his second in command, Captain Roger Maxson to deal with the aftermath.
Today the Brotherhood looks up to Roger Maxson with religious reverence. Perhaps Maxson was destined to carry the fire of humanity, or he may have simply had the right balance of honor and pragmatism needed to lead men through the apocalypse.
Maxson took it upon himself to take control of the base, ordering the interrogations of the science teams to maintain a semblance of order. As he started to believe that the project was backed knowingly by his government, he attempted to contact his superiors for a response, even going so far as to declare secession from the Union. At the same time, he and his soldiers then gathered their families with them and readied themselves inside their remote base. They waited for a response, any kind of response, anticipating that their own government would never tolerate such an outright insurrection and would have to come and provide answers.
But the response never came. Unbeknownst to Maxson, The Great War was already brewing even as he staged his revolt. If anyone in the government knew about Maxon's rebellion, they no longer cared.
The base at Mariposa proved to be a reliable shelter against the onslaught of the atomic war. Maxson, his loyal troops, and their families were among the survivors. His own wife and son were at Maxson's side, and the understanding that his children would live in whatever world he left behind must surely have influenced his actions in the days ahead.
