|
|
Dome City participated in the Vertibird License Contest. Dome City was written by CaptainCain. The article is written about a former US Military Base in Australia.
|
|
| Dome City | |
| |
| General Information | |
| Establishment: | 2207 |
| Status: | Active |
| Location Information | |
| Location: | Northern Territory, Australia |
| Societal Information | |
| Population: | Approx. 450 |
| Notable Individuals: | Keith Abbot, Jack Kennedy, Andrew Jefferson, Skinner, Beatdown |
| Factions: | American Survivalists
Black Sheep |
| Notable Events: | Tribal Wars |
A Pre-war military base turned desert oasis in the Northern Territory. In the mid-1970s the US Military setup this base to monitor Soviet and Chinese satellites and thus has quite a few radomes are present on the base. Yet when the bombs fell the base's inhabitants were unaffected until a massive radiation cloud blew across the base, shrouding it in lethal levels of radiation causing the inhabitants to duck into its radiation shelters. These people remained there until 2207 when the radiation was finally low enough for the people to live safely above ground. They have since formed a community within the base and readily accept weary travelers crossing through the raider infested deserts of central Australia. The folks don't make no bones about whether your human or not so the people inhabiting the base are a mix of ghouls, unmutated humans and a lot of Wasters. They were contacted by the Enclave in 2230, but they chose to not respond to their radio messages, albeit most of the advanced tech on base is non-functional the water purifier is still functional and naturally the guns work so they're pretty good in that respect.
Pre-War[]
In 1970 the US Government moved 400 American families to a discreet location in central Australia where a newly constructed Joint Military base had been finished by the US Military and Australian Government. The base had an abundance of radomes and other surveillance equipment, all meant for the express purpose of tracking the many Soviet and Chinese recon/surveillance/spy satellites that orbited the earth and often passed over the base's location. However, the base soon became the target of protests from everyone from peace activists to conspiracy theorists demanding to see the aliens the US Government was surely holding within the base. Yet for all the rumors about the base's true purpose, the base was expressly for the surveillance of satellites and spy traffic flowing from these satellites. The base was continually updated by the US Government and Australian Governments to keep it up to date with the changing tech and eventually the base was handed over to the CIA and NSA who took over its operations in the early 2000s. Yet as the tensions with China heated up, the base was soon given the job of becoming an early warning post for incoming missiles towards the US along with calculate the trajectories for American Missiles to China. When in 2077 the nukes started flying the base was almost oblivious to it until a single radio transmission came in announcing, Nukes launched, US hit, Communications down, Order Lost.
Post-War[]
Signals[]
After receiving the message from the continental United States no one at the base knew how to move forward, well Brigadier Keith Abbot decided it would suit them best to keep together and use the base's facilities to protect them from the elements and anyone out in the wastes. The first thing the group did was send a message to Canberra asking for status of the Australian Government and its stability. What was left of the Government returned that the nation was in shambles, that several major cities had been hit by nuclear weapons and had promptly dropped off the map. The Government then demanded that the base commander turn over all weaponry to Australian Military units to help with peacekeeping operations throughout the nation. Brigadier Abbot promptly cut the connection there and decided that the Australian Government was no longer acting as an ally and should be treated as such. The people of Dome City rapidly began to prepare for a siege, that never materialized. The Australian Government seemed to have collapsed or gone into hiding, the next group that contacted the base was a group calling themselves the State of Oceania. The State of Oceania was a led by a former Army colonel that filled the void of the Australian Government and had promptly claimed all of Oceania under his control and was making every attempt to conquer it. The group sent an sizable force to Dome City, amounting to the size of a weakened company to take the base. Well the military personnel quickly gathered together and planned a surprise attack that would hopefully change the mind of the Colonel and his men on taking the installation. The group of 75 soldiers, leaving a few to guard the base itself set out at midnight and arrived at the camp of the SoO Army around 1 AM. They had killed the outlying sentries and promptly snuck into the camp. Once within it they found an old tanker truck the soldiers had brought along to haul Kerosene for lighting and cooking. The filled up buckets with the stuff and doused several tents in it before setting fire to the gas. The SoO soldiers came running out of their tents, some on fire others just shocked. Those who resisted got a bullet between the eyes but most of the soldiers simply surrendered, it was discovered that the Colonel had told this unit to take Dome City or he would have their families killed (whom he had taken hostage prior to their departure). The Aussies agreed to join up with the Americans and in return the Americans agreed to help liberate their captured families, all of whom were brought back to Dome City and the soldiers joined up with the base security force.
Wild Wild Wild Wasteland[]
After the run-in with the SoO and the Colonel, the colonel swore vengeance upon Dome City. Yet the Colonel and his band of up-armored nutjobs were the least of their worries. A massive cloud of radiation was moving quickly towards the base and forced the inhabitants of Dome City into the base's fallout shelter. Within this base they remained until 2207 when they eventually opened up the doors and after briefly checking the air quality saw to it that the earth was once again habitable. They resettled into their base finding most of their advanced equipment non-functional, the area surrounding the base inhabited by hostile tribes and the Colonel and his men now more powerful than ever. The Colonel had spread across the Southern Australian coast, setting up the new government in Canberra,Victoria. The tribes
Militia on patrol.
surrounding the base were soon shown to be just as brutal as the Colonel and his men. There were the Weasels, The Desert Rats and the Desert Foxes, The Roos and the Camel Spiders. All brutal killers in their own way and all shared the same dislike for not just one another but for the people of Dome City. Whether it was seeing them as either a source of fresh bodies or a supply of fresh meat the tribes wanted access to the base and soon the people of Dome City were defending their home from daily raids. Yet the town held on and soon was back up to working speed, the town quickly gained a reputation as a safe haven from the vicious tribes of the central hinterlands this soon attracted weary people. Mostly merchants coming down the highway to trade in the far safer southern Australian coast, but individuals came in ones, pairs, or sometimes big groups and found that Dome City was a worthwhile place to live thus the town's population grew greatly over the years even including one group of ghouls who claimed to have been members of the hippie groups that protested the base in the pre-war days. The newcomers along with the people already living in the town soon had taken over most of the buildings within the base's perimeter. The massive radomes that once served to protect a far-off land were stripped of their radar equipment and top-soil hauled up from the fallout shelter was spread within the domes, lighting was added and soon the radomes had been turned into bio-domes for growing crops that soon were feeding the entire town and then some.
Yet it was in 2230 when the town received a strange message on an old frequency from the good old USA. The voice on the radio claimed to be a member of the US Government trying to pull the old nation back together, this group referred to themselves as the Enclave. They offered to send vertibirds full of food and soldiers to protect the town should the base respond to their offer, it ended with a long monologue on how the American value system would be restored and the US would rise again, the base under command of Brigadier Jack Kennedy and he chose not to respond. Yet the town was not all with him in this decision, a group calling themselves the Black Sheep demanded that Brigadier Kennedy contact the Enclave and have them send supplies but Kennedy stood firm in his decision. This angered the Black Sheep who declared themselves separatists and using their personal firearms began to rise up against the Brigadier and the other American Survivalists. This caused the two sides to go head to head with one another over the issue ending in an open gun battle that left six people dead, yet it was the Black Sheep that were driven off from the base. The Black Sheep set up a camp some miles away and began to prepare for another attack on the town, and using their own radio equipment they sent a message to the Enclave accepting their offer and giving them their coordinates. It is not known what happened to the Black Sheep but they suddenly went dark one day, the same day one of the town farmers reported strange green and red lights in the distance. The ghouls have been a point of debate in the town, many simply view them as unlucky people yet some view them as disgusting monsters that need to be put down. Luckily for the ghouls of the town these people are rather few in number and are not about to go rising up like the Black Sheep, but they're still there. Dome City still acts as a conduit for merchants making their way south, a safe haven where they can escape from the terrors of the wasteland and the ravenous tribes, they accept all who wish to settle the town no matter if they're ghouls or humans they all live together in relative peace in the fortress haven that is Dome City.
Relations[]
Weasels[]
The weasels are a tribe of ultra-violent tribals, their origins are unknown but its not out of line to say that they likely formed from one of the many survivalist towns located within the desert. What is known is that they are incredibly well equipped for a bunch of tribals. They have access to top of the line firearms which is quite strange and threatening at the same time. It is likely that the survivors had simply raided an abandoned military base or the Weasels are lucky enough to be well acquainted with an arms dealer with very high end weaponry. These two theories are both possible and yet are still speculation, here is what IS known about the Weasels. They started attacking merchants and Dome City around 2235 and have their main base of operations set up at an old solar power plant with a massive reflection tower centered in the middle. From here they are able to give power to their whole community and use it as a bargaining chip for prospective towns or gangs the Weasels seek to have join their tribe. The extent of their lands is unknown and their population is also unknown but it is know that they employ many captured people as human shields when they attack Dome City, however despite their technological superiority in regards to the solar plant they still rely upon walking for attacks on their enemies. This is only the tip of the iceberg as the entire tribe seems to have reverted back to some superstitious beliefs that all gas driven vehicles or vehicles in general are bad voodoo, to add to this the tribe seems to have only a few people actually knowledgeable in maintaining the solar plant and keep it in working order. This is vital as their whole society revolves around the plant, it doesn't just supply power, it runs the purifier, keeps their villages automated defenses up and running and just see to it that their society doesn't fall into anarchy, which should the plant go down just might happen.
Desert Foxes and Desert Rats[]
These two tribes are rather interesting as they are locked in a perpetual state of warfare. The two tribes are not all that different, they both seem to wear the same crazy clothing, drive the same loud, smoking coughing cars and both have the habit of stealing women (in the case of the Desert Foxes) or men (in the case of the Desert Rats) for the purposes of breeding with the tribes dominant gender. It is wildly believed that the two tribes were formed by a brother and a sister who hated the others guts and thus decided they would rather kill one another than resolve their issues. Thus the two sides fight one another on a daily basis over land neither side is really able to hold onto for any longer than a few days, from a water purification plant to an old oil refinery. The two tribes are constantly at one another's throats and thus their fighting tends to spill over and that includes Dome City. The town militia always make a point of driving off these two groups when they come around the town, thus the Desert Rats and Foxes often attack the town out of anger for the militias interference in their affairs. Yet these fearsome attacks which can at times include hundreds of warriors rarely do any damage as the two tend to attack the town at the same time and end up fighting one another rather than the town itself. All the militia has to do is sit back and watch the fireworks, chasing off the survivors.
The Camel Spiders[]
The many animals that roam the wastes one must wonder if anyone managed to domesticate the geckos or deathclaws, wild dogs out there. Yet the tribe known as the Camel Spiders has managed to over the years and in turn used them as weapons. The Camel Spiders first had their origins among a group of animal tamers and handlers from a variety of zoos and carnivals that banned together into a group of survivors. they decided the best way to avoid the hazards of the post-apocalyptic world was to retreat to the desert. They however didn't count on everyone and their sister having the same idea of fleeing into Australia's vast central desert. The tribes soon began to squabble over what few resources they could scrounge up and the Camel Spiders were thrown into a situation that they really weren't prepared for. The group quickly realized that they were horrible fighters having no real combat skills, yet when one of the members suggested using animals to help fight their battles almost everyone jumped aboard. The handlers went out one day and captured themselves a handful of the wild beasts that wandered the wastes, and over a period of several weeks managed to tame the animals and eventually train them to be agile killing machines. These tough animals quickly made up the backbone of the Camel Spider's fighting force, yet these animals weren't without their costs. Countless handlers and trainers were killed by the very animals they were attempting to domesticate, more simply were killed or maimed when the beasts went out of control during battle. Attempts to control the animals behavior have proven fruitless and the Camel Spiders are more and more relying upon the fighting skills of their own men rather than the tenacity of their trained beasts, thus their influence in the region of Dome City has greatly diminished from its already pale self. The tribe soon turned to petty raiding to stay alive and this brought them into contact with Dome City's militia. Attacking a city-sponsored caravan is one way to get yourself offed in these wild wastes and the Camel Spiders crossed that line many a time making them the main target for Militia patrols. They have since receded into the desert to maintain what composure they have left.
The Roos[]
The Roos are a brutal tribe of cannibals that inhabit the desert around Dome City. The Roos have a rather sketchy history with a group of survivors coming out of the irradiated ruins of the Australian Coast, starved and malnourished the group moved through the wasteland looking for a clean source of water and any amount of food and despite their best efforts they simply couldn't find a bite to eat. It was said the tribe settled down to await the inevitable when one of their numbers died. The tribe really didn't know where to put the corpse so it sat out for awhile until someone suggested they eat it claiming that you eat what you can when you can. Thus the tribes took the slightly rotted corpse and cooked it and later consumed it thus was born the Roos. The tribesmen soon went from using cannibalism as a means of survival to simply a source of food, now why this was so is still up to debate for most folks in the wasteland. many just simply believe that waiting for someone to die so they may eat them is just the lazy way of getting out of having to grow crops and raise animals but the truth is this is all speculation, they could've taken a liking to the taste of their fellow man or maybe they view themselves as a means of population control in a polluted wasteland. What IS known is that the Roos have a very interesting religion that dictates that the consuming of a human after his or her death allows them to absorb their life force allowing the consumer to "live longer" ,they get the person's knowledge and adopt his wisdom yet above all the gain his or her strength. This belief is taken into all facets of their life, if a child dies at a young age the parents consume the child in hopes of being able to start over and recreate the child, a fallen enemy is consumed for the purpose of gaining knowledge of their enemies and gaining their expertise and skills. Now whether any of this works is up to your own interpretation. They mostly raid around the trade routes going into and out of Dome City and thus pose quite a threat to merchants moving along that road, yet they are not well armed and often use nothing more than just plain spears, bows and arrows with the odd gun mixed in. Ironically they view firearms to be barbaric.
Culture[]
The culture of Dome City is really what you would expect of a post-apocalyptic trading town. There are hookers, booze and even a few drugs that float around in the town bazaar, mercenaries camp out in the local pub waiting to sign contracts to protect another caravan through the great desert of central Australia. However, all of this seediness is luckily well regulated by the town militia, which patrols the town market and walls
Militia checking the contents of a merchant's stand.
vehemently. Often times anyone found in violation of one of the regulations for goods that can be sold in the town are quite often thrown out and seeing as most of the leaders of Dome city up to this point have had a rather strong moral compass there has been a lacking in a supply of fresh women (and sometimes girls would be more appropriate) and drugs. Both of these commodities the militia and often times the leaders of Dome City see as lower than low and will do anything needed to bar them from entering their town. The Aussies also brought their unique swing on things also, from their lingo to their odd obsession with large knives, machetes and anything that would be considered a sharp, stabbing, and cutting object. All kidding aside the Aussie people have brought every aspect of their culture and intermingled it with that of the Americans, from the old folk music to stories of the infamous Ned Kelly to music of Paul Kelly. The Aussies have influenced the town quite a bit.
Notable Folks[]
Skinner[]
Skinner was once known by a different name in the pre-war days, a name he has since forgotten. Skinner like most of the ghouls in Dome City arrived with the former hippies that showed up in Dome City. While some of the hippies still believed in the non-violence ideology they had held before the war, most had given that idea up as they fought for survival in the wastes. Skinner was one of those violent converts, he came into Dome City offering his services to the townsfolk as a mercenary and after serving a time in the town Militia he became a mercenary working for the town and for caravaneers as they moved through the wastes. He made a decent living as a caravan guard and soon he had enough to start up his own company, named the Daisy Defenders after his hippie upbringing these men were soon known as one of the most reliable and the fiercest mercenaries one could hire and a lot of business came in from road weary Caravaneers looking for good if a bit expensive protection, but when you have to fight people like the Roos and the Camel Spiders you gonna need all the help you can get.
Beatdown[]
Beatdown was a tired old ghoul when he rolled into Dome City. An Aussie, he had watched the whole world he once new vaporized before him and instead of the sweet embrace of death he found chunks of skin and hair falling off his body. He took this transformation with grudging acceptance and promptly changed his name to Skinner. He roamed the wastes doing a variety of odd jobs from helping out on isolated farms to helping settlements beat off attacks by vicious animals until he mosied into Dome City. Here he quickly heard about the Daisy Defenders mercenaries and not having any prior engagement and deciding he like the town he joined up with the Daisy Defenders. He got his first job hunting down crooks for the town, helping to patrol the town perimeter and the roads going into and out of the town. Finally he went along with a massive caravan train, sixteen merchants, their pack animals and the various mercenaries they hired set out for the next settlement well down the road. For the first few days the town was quiet, they passed roving patrols from the Dome City Militia and other merchants heading into town. Three more merchants joined up with the caravan train adding their guns to the caravans firepower. On the fourth day the train stopped for the night, setting up camp the various small campfires belonging to the various merchants light up the surrounding area. Suddenly the whole horizon light up as the chatter of gunfire filled the night, it was the Weasels they had come to ambush the caravan. The Weasels closed with the caravan quickly, killing several mercenaries and their merchant wards. Realizing the situation was lost Beatdown quickly gathered his employer and rushed him down the road, shooting their way out of the ambush. They arrived at a small trading post built into a old train station set out in the middle of the desert. The lone building became their safe haven for a few days as they traded and drank away their nerves. They left the next day arriving in the next town two days later. Beatdown was payed and he promptly returned to Dome City with a courier caravan.
| This has been written by CaptainCain. Please contact this user before editing this article. |