| Kirkman Artillery Base | |
| |
| General Information | |
| Establishment: | 2002 |
| Disestablishment: | 2262 |
| Status: | Destroyed |
| Location Information | |
| Location: | Northwest Commonwealth, Oregon |
| Societal Information | |
| Population: | 2,000 (Pre-War)
120 (Post-War) |
| Notable Individuals: | General McKarter
Captain Hailer |
| Factions: | US Military
Enclave |
| Notable Events: | Preparations for Canada Annexation
Anchorage Liberation Preparations Reviving Kirkman |
Kirkman Artillery Base was founded in 2002, in the Northwest Commonwealth, the state of Oregon, 80 miles from Salem. Following an increase in military activity and updates to US military equipment, the base was constructed as a means to mobilize ammunition and equipment effectively, whilst simultaneously being able to defend US territory, should a war ever break out, threatening US soil or her allies, back when the US still had a part in global affairs.
The facility was used to fuel the war effort during the Resource Wars against China when they invaded Alaska and fueled the annexation of Canada when the US government moved into 'unify' the US and its neighbor. The base was relatively unscathed when the Great War broke out, and was even able to use its artillery cannons years after the Great War concluded, leaving the occupants of the facility as radioactive ghouls, following the loss of its occupants the base fell into disrepair, and with the curious snow fall and radical drop of temperature in the area, much like the rest of the United States, where the weather changed drastically.
The base was re-activated by the Enclave in 2170, long before the Enclave had revealed itself to the Wasteland, improving the facility's defenses and substantially improving the base's defenses, including re-activating the long dormant laser turret grid, using the facility well into the Enclave's prime, and into the time when they attacked and destroyed the village of Arroyo. The base was eventually destroyed by a team of Brotherhood of Steel Knights and Paladins, wasteland settlers, and explorers from the expedition into the wasteland from Vault 14, infiltrating and destroying the base by turning the guns onto the facility, and firing repeatedly into the structure, before detonating the fission rods powering the facility, destroying the base and annihilating the Enclave cell present in the Base. The base was still scavenged by the Brotherhood of Steel's chapter in the region up until 2262, before being abandoned to the wastes.
History[]
The Facility was first used following its construction in 2002 as a staging area for a good few years of the bases runtime before the Resource Wars, in 2053, the Facility was upgraded to feature numerous defense applications, including a variety of turrets on the Bases northern cliff face, whilst these upgrades continued, General Constantine Chase and General Anderson McKarter had begun persuading pressured US Senators to pour funds into the United States homeland security initiatives, upgrading shore defenses, but also upgrading the Artillery base to use three massive artillery cannons, similar to the US guns in Anchorage, Alaska.
Following the invasion of Alaska in 2066, the base was used as a storage facility for ammunition, weaponry and the new US power armor: the T-51b Power armor, placing the new armor sets in storage, or shipping them to the front by railroad, following the capture of numerous ports in Alaska, but inevitably storing the remaining armor pieces and other equipment in the storage facilities on the base. The site also included an airstrip, making it an ideal fortification. In 2216, Many in the Enclave who had become aware of Kirkman's existence, saw it as a bastion of limitless potential for the Enclave, when they re-activated the fortress, with the approval of President Dick Richardson, however; the rail line access route was impossible to utilize, due to the rails having been damaged by the low temperatures or by the ground shifting underneath the lines as the years passed.
The Enclave wasted no time in establishing a presence in the base, setting up the facility as a FOB for the Enclave's vision of re-taking the United States, most of the old T-51b Power armour stores were either dismantled or destroyed by Enclave scientists, for use in building the Enclave's Advanced power armor, and the guns of the facility were either repaired and rearmed, or scavenged for parts and left to decay, though most of the guns were in a good condition thanks to the bases distance from Salem. The artillery base was used to co-ordinate assaults and scouting missions on tribal settlements, or sparsely populated settlements in the surrounding area, kidnapping or eliminating settlers, sending the kidnapped settlers onto FEV testing facilities, moving the kidnapped settlers further inland or out to the Enclave's Poseidon Oil rig, most notably raiding the Hardfoot Tribe, and attacking the Town of Pleasant Side. However, in 2242, the Enclave Oil Rig was destroyed by the Chosen One, the Enclave forces at Kirkman were notified by their commanding officers and respective superiors, and ordered a general communications blackout until they were contacted in person by other Enclave cells, that however, never occurred, with little to no cells even aware of Kirkman's existence, and even unaware of if they survived.
These continued movement of kidnapped settlers brought attention from the Brotherhood of Steel chapter in the region, whom began to investigate the matter, stationing scouts around the area and began to discover the Enclave's movements and operations in the area, which in turn alerted the local settlements of Salem, and a group of Vault 14 explorers who happened to be present in the Snow covered city, to the Enclave's existence in the region, though the group of settlers were unconvinced they were a threat, they were eventually convinced to aid the Brotherhood. The base was monitored for a considerable length of time, before launching a gamble assault, operating as a joint militia of Brotherhood of Steel units and wastelanders, with the facility falling following calculated strikes against the facility from the interior, eventually causing numerous internal explosions from the facilities ammo depots, with remaining Enclave forces retreating and abandoning the base. The base was scavenged by Brotherhood of Steel scribes until they found no further parts that could be scavenged, leaving no use for the gutted facility, abandoning it to the wastes in 2244.
Layout[]
Kirkman Artillery Base was one of the largest facilities the US had in the pre-war world, the Facility site consisted of:
- Airstrip
- Barracks and Monorail Access lines
- Communications Centre
- Command Centre
- Tactical Co-ordination Centre
