On the Friday night of the recent surface mission, NED had managed to organise a meet with the Mutant Clan that had rescued him; The Cutlery Clan which is composed of three people: Knives, Folks and Spoon. They are super mutants of Warlord status and are intelligent and skilled. They act as negotiators between clans as well as rescuing ‘not rights’ after the Jab from Dr Langstrom. The ‘not rights’ leave the jab with some personality and memories left.
The ranking order amongst the Mutants is generally
War Lords
Older Mutants who get some memories back due to their age. Usually lead a nation.
Butchers
Very Important as they prepare the food of the Mutant nations
Lead Spitter/Cutter
Which one you are in entirely depends on if you use hand to hand weapons or guns.
The main body of the troops we have been seeing.
Dregs
They come out of the Jab slightly wrong and are seen as the lowest of the low. The exception is Spoon of the Cutlery Clan who is technically a Dreg but has superior intelligence and can read and write, but not speak.
Not Rights
Almost always killed by Mutants unless they can be rescued.
Retain memories of Pre Jab Life.
NED is an example.
The Cutlery Clan have also provided us with a map of the Mutant nations and some information about the different Nations.
Bullet Farmers
Killed Spoon’s Dog and so she enacted retribution upon them and so the Nation was decimated. They then engaged with the Orphans who killed or imprisoned the remainder.
Excellent at making ammunition.
Orphans
Killed all the Warlords of their nation and anyone senior. Now running rampant over the Mutant Nations. They do not obey the rules and conventions of the Mutant Nations and force the jab upon unwilling people.
Have taken over the Da Syndicate Nation.
I present them here simply as a matter of record as I intend to ensure every last Orphan is eradicated.
Da Syndicate
Taken over by the Orphans
Very disciplined
Act in the manner of Bunker Military.
Da Cleansed
Zealots
Worship the Ancestors
Volunteered to join the Orphans.
Black Sun Alliance
Former dominant faction before the Orphans and were the biggest nation
1st and oldest faction
Traditionalists and value the Mutant nations rules
Vocal opposition to the Orphans
NED and Sally Fields have sent a gift of a laser rifle via the Cutlery Clan to the Alliance to begin negotiations with them to work against the Orphans.
I agree with General Agro that this is the first stage in eradicating the Mutants as a whole. To do that we need to kill Dr Langstrom.
The Cooperative
Weapon and armour smiths
Lots of heavy weaponry and possibly where the laser guns have come from.
They trade Weapons and armour with other nations.
Asylum Confederation
Particularly focused on close combat and have many troops trained in close combat.
Berserkers
The Freaks
Huge nation
Comprising mostly of Dregs with a few others.
Led by some older Mutants
Looked down upon by other nations.
New Prophet Brotherhood
Newest nation
Anyone who enters their lands goes missing so subsequently not much is known about them.
Follow a Prophet.
Considered to be weird even by the standards of Mutant nations.
Michael Shannon, The Drakes, Agro and I all travelled to Bunker Fortitude to try to help with our mutual specialist issue.
We met up with several of the Fortitude FEF we have worked with before. I was happy to see people like Sarge and Katia as I hadn’t seen them since the Floor 17 mission and I wanted to see how they were all getting on. Councillor Alverson met us just as we were catching up with the terrible news that Welkerson had been poisoned by an assassination patch and was close to death. He tasked us with investigating the people working with him and to do so quietly so as not to spread panic, and to find a copy of the virus used on him. We had about 3 hours to get the job done.
We went to soldier Mclaren bunk space and started to poke around. A lot of the residents of the level were confused as to why we were there and were quick to suggest it was because of an assassination or something as they had heard rumours.
In his room we found two PADDs that needed hacking to gain access to the information. Engineers and Psymon worked diligently to get us access to the information.
Unfortunately we appeared to trigger some kind of silent alarm as we came under attack from Fortitude personnel. The team managed to deal with the attack easily, and we left the attackers for Fortitude to investigate.
The second communication led us to a lab which had all the technology needed to create the assassination patch.
It was here things started to get… odd.
The lab was investigated for traces of the virus and none were found. Shannon and Katia also discovered that the equipment was too clean. The lab was a fake!
This called into question everything we had discovered so far and then another Padd with hidden data was discovered. In the course of hacking this, the device blew up, although luckily we got the data off it first.
It became very apparent that this was the true communications device and that the ted by the Network and the Specialists. The other information that we had received could only be seen as dubious at best and on my opinion is utterly false and attempting to use our methods of collecting information against us.
We informed bunker control that we would be leaving the bunker to head to the Garden that is mentioned in the comms. (K20 on the map) Control and Alverson were confused by this turn of events but allowed us to the surface. On the way to the Garden we came under repeated attack from the children of Eden. It’s a further confirmation that the Network have managed to get them under their control.
Agro had a theory that someone was trying to stop us getting to the Garden and to try and deal with that suggested sending the drones back along the path we had already come and to say we were on our way home, unsuccessful. This turned out to be entirely true and getting rid of the drones allowed us to get there.
At the Garden there were further sustained attacks while Scar tried to get the doors to the facility open. There were specialist snipers and children of Eden and they were very persistent at trying to stop us. We pressed forward and Scar managed to get the door to the facility open.
I was not prepared for what Katia and I found within. It was a Hive subject suspended in some kind of device.
Shannon and Scar could tell you more about it as I understood very little as the medical and technological discussions were very advanced, but what I did understand was this was part of something called Project Nexus which was about infiltrating Hive programming for who knows what end.
Also in the facility the medics found a device that had the base codes for the virus that was killing Welkerson. Katia uploaded the code to bunker control who managed to use it to help Welkerson and just in the nick of time as he was nearly dead.
As we started to make our way back to Fortitude, Alverson came over the radio taunting us with his superiority and accusing us of destroying years of research. He was Network! (I think his codename is Einstein) we tried to get back to arrest him but he shut down DAMAGE and the comms relays. He and several Network Specialists managed to escape the bunker in the confusion of DAMAGE being down. I imagine they will plague us further but at least he is not in a position of power on the council.
Once again Fortitude and Ascendancy personnel came together for the good of both bunkers and we all worked very well together.
If anyone wishes more details of Project Nexus or the Specialists and their misdirections please do contact me in office hours at the usual address.
Additional note:
As I was returning to Ascendancy lands, Katia asked for a conversation and the result of which is that she wants to join Bunker Ascendant and its FEF as she doesn’t feel comfortable at Fortitude. I have brought her back and she is currently living in the tunnels above my office. She’s a brilliant scientist and medic so I’m eager to see what she can do for the Ascendancy.
First I want to open my report by saying that I was astounded by the number of excellent new FEF members we had with us on the surface this time. They made the bunker and the Ascendancy proud and I was happy to work alongside them. I am also happy to have had their fresh eyes looking at situations that have occurred and received a lot of good feedback, advice and questions that I plan to take forward in the upcoming year.
I also wish to formally ask for a vote to rename the forward outpost that was part of Vulcan facilities Fort NED in honour of his sacrifice but more of that later.
We started the surface mission at Fort Leon, consolidating our supplies needed for the long walk and the territory ahead. We were visited by the Shale who were interested in our PADDs and we traded some salvage for 2 PADDs, the salvage to go straight into repairing the new forward post.
Several sets of protestors appeared wanting to discuss many different issues but mainly issues surrounding Psions and the Choir of the Enlightened. They were peaceful and engaged with many members of the FEF.
One of the protestors allowed Vlad to show him what had happened with the Witch and he was so horrified he tried to kill himself. Vlad with no thought to his own skin immediately took on the wound himself and the protestor healed. The protester then left, vowing to explain what he had seen.
A mission to do something scientific with a potato and a radioactive tree went out to apparent great success. I’m sure a report will be made by someone who understood what they did!
We were invited to meet with Brother Phineas to discuss the issues surrounding Psions and the Choir and strikes and on heading out to the meet point, met with two sets of fighting protestors who were arguing for and against the choir. I’m pleased that we managed to defuse the situation and we sent them to Councillor Shannon at the Bunker for a drink and further discussion.
We also came across a person worshipping the ashes of the Choir’s Holy Mother who I killed, and Vlad got psychically entangled by the worshipper.
On meeting Brother Phineas he was very demanding and wanted to know exactly what we were going to do for him. Councillor Vlad and others made some excellent points but it wasn’t until we played the recording of the attack by the Witch upon the FEF forced and showed him the files on the issues with what has become to be known colloquially as ‘jumping over the edge’ in Psionic terms and moving up in power level that he began to at least understand a little why I did what I did. We need to have more discussion and he wants an answer as to why we don’t release more information to the whole bunker, but as I have said before, I don’t want the whole bunker to turn on Psions.
Unfortunately we had to leave Brother Phineas rapidly as there was an attack on Fort Leon by the specialists. The fighting was fierce. The specialists were heavily armed and well prepared but we managed to get to Fort Leon to help out and we had no losses in the attack. We didn’t manage to get any information from the specialist we captured alive before they killed themselves unfortunately.
We were just about to head to bed when we received a faint panicked radio call from a Fortitude Soldier on patrol. He had found a member of the Stricken who was dying and he needed assistance. We went out to collect them, but he needed surgery immediately. Indy managed to stabilise him for transport and then we marched back to Fort Leon.
I woke Dr Shannon up and set him to work (where do Dr’s go to sleep, I usually can only ever find Shannon late at night). Shannon completed a complicated surgical procedure that involved removing bits of landmine from the Stricken’s heart. Happily the procedure was successful and the Stricken, one Thirus Gorman made a complete recovery.
I discovered he was a leading member of the black hill boys settlement and that he came from a place called the Borderlands near The Vulcan Depot. I have to say I was very excited by this news and immediately started to plot this on the maps I had brought with me.
Unfortunately he carried with him grave news. The super mutants that had attacked us and we had driven from the depot were spreading out, moving through villages and settlements and killing or taking prisoner the villagers (so that they could send them to something called The Jab). Gorman came through the area behind Fortitude that the Children of Eden held, looking for help but the rest of his friends were slaughtered by the Children. There was a brief discussion and those of the FEF present agreed that we need to help the Black Hill Boys.
The FEF the next day moved en masse to the Vulcan facility we had taken on the last surface mission. Although the team left looking after it had done a great Job the engineers did think that any number of the circuits and systems were likely to blow up at any given time. And how right they were!
When the first mission went out to discuss provisions and supplies with the Pact (which bunker Victoria also appeared to want and there was a competition for) the Depot worked for a while but then numerous parts of it started to go wrong. The engineers on duty were fantastic; Ned, Scar and Roary pulled the facility back from the brink of failure at risk to their own lives.
Vlad, Darya and everyone on the Pact mission did a great job of working together to impress the Pact although the situation remains unresolved. We do have a new contact at Victoria though, Ambassador Adalaid Armitage Smithe. Shannon also discovered that a lot of the Pact have lung rot and that we have no cure for it yet.
I went out with the second mission to see if I could film any conversation between the mutants and to see if I could work out their command structure. Discussion of ‘The Jab’ means there has to be a level of communication and scientific knowledge which means they or some of them could be reasoned with. Bloom, a member of the Lost tribe, thinks that this is impossible but I feel it’s important to try.
Cromwell
We met hard and consistent attacks from the mutants, but one bright point was running into Cromwell, who wanted one of our drones so that he could better protect a Stricken village from Mutant attacks. I felt that this was sensible and so we released a Drone to him, although this annoyed the Drone ops and Dahl greatly. He then joined us as we tried to take down a Mutant Warlord. (We are starting to learn their command structures!) The fighting was swift, brutal and ugly. But the FEF with Cromwell’s help prevailed and we took down most of the fighting forces. The Warlord unfortunately escaped. Gorman met us at the end and thanked us for our help. There may be a chance that we can become friends with this tribe and it’s something I would like to pursue.
Mr Gorman
The next mission to go out was to investigate the radioactive crater to the north of Pact lands. The area is highly radioactive and they ran into a Victoria science base that had been killed by a large Mutant beast. The situation was made worse by a Victoria patrol running into the team and threatening them as they believed the FEF had killed the science team. Preposterous accusations and postering in the face of evidence showing a beast attack that nearly got them all killed.
A firefight ensued and then the FEF patrol healed the Victoria soldiers and brought them to the Depot. Darya, Vlad and I interviewed the Victoria soldiers while several of the FEF called for their lives. Luckily cooler heads prevailed and we released them after getting a lot of information from them.
In summary I managed to get:
The location of Bunker Victoria
A list of the ruling families Bartholomew, Morterson, Watling, Pickman, Armitage
A rough idea of numbers and attitudes: there’s 10 divisions of soldiers, the soldiers are not invited to events with their officers, the soldiers have radiation damage and are malnourished, medical and logistics people don’t seem to be held in high regard, a lot of bunker Victoria are classified as farmers and even the ordinary privates believe that Victoria should be ruling an empire.
After this I have to say I wanted a quiet night but we were attacked by Super Mutants. The attack was again vicious and sustained. We fought well and as a coordinated unit with everyone playing major roles in successfully defending the depot. The skills and courage displayed on that night show why I am so proud to be a member of FEF.
Dead Mutant
Unfortunately after this high came another major situation. Elwood, Jacob and Anthony burst into the depot and restrained Nero claiming he had committed crimes against the Ascendancy.
Jacob explained that there was reason to believe that our communications systems had been compromised. As a precaution, council PADDs were scanned for hacks or bugs with full permission of councillors.
Major Elwood’s padd contained a bug that was inactive. The situation was monitored until the bug went active and the data transmission was tracked to Nero’s position after the Mutant attack.
A search of Nero was then performed and witnessed by members of the FEF including councillors Vlad, Jacob and Fields. The search was done in full view of all present. Upon Nero in a pouch was found a high quality shielded padd Fortitude in origin and some patches. He professed he had never seen them before.
To de-escalate the situation Councillor Vlad asked if he could search Nero’s mind for the truth of the matter and receiving permission from Nero received a blast of emotion when he opened himself to thoughts so crippling that he believed Nero to be guilty. (he later rescinded this and now believes him to be innocent) Studying his body language I believe Nero to be innocent but it was a very complex situation with very high emotions. Nero tried to escape, and so the decision was made to Stun him and hold him until the truth of the matter could be ascertained. The items recovered were given to Dr Shannon for DNA testing. This situation is ongoing at the time of this report’s submission and investigations into the bug, padd and patches are still happening.
After the arrest, the FEF met with Raze who issued several statements about the free peoples and their path moving forward.
He abolished the post of Soul
He created the post of Voice
He said that the Risen, would be forgiven their transgressions with a new leader and a vow of fealty
The dead stars would be investigated and may be forgiven with a new chief and a vow of fealty
He said that there would be a council of tribal chiefs he would discuss everything with
The Tithe in excess that had been instituted at the prompting of the old Soul would be returned.
Rav was promoted to Chief of the Pack and he would be trying to get them to settle into the Crows’ old lands.
He doesn’t trust the Ancestors after the issues with the Soul and wishes to ban their worship although this is still being discussed.
If that wasn’t enough we also had a visit from Eli as a hologram using Dahl’s interface. He said this was the last time he would try to convince us. He confirmed that Aegis was a dictatorship and that the AI selected the 5 people best suited each year to help Aegis to run the bunker for the year. He also said that we would have to stop using C7 immediately if we joined and all people would need to follow what they were told to do for the good of the bunker. I asked about threats and attacks as our weapons use C7 and he said we need not worry as we wouldn’t need them as Aegis soldiers would protect us.
I understand the need to move from C7 and we have engineers and medics and chemists working on this right now. I however, will never live under the dictatorship that Eli and Aegis proposes even for their clean energy technologies.
The next day the FEF made their way to the old Vulcan Research facility. We were fighting Mutants all the way, and rescuing Stricken they had captured. One survivor called Julie identified herself as a member of the Smiths clan who had all been killed or captured and I sent her to Cromwell for protection. I hope she made it.
There was also a meeting of mutants/tribals from different clans and an argument about being just like the Cutlery users.
In the final push to the facility we again met heavy resistance but prevailed. Unfortunately a large part of the facility was destroyed. We still found some interesting salvage and then a choice. There were mutants fleeing and we could choose to go only after 1 or 2 of them, all which carried engineering data and all moving at speed. One was for a laser gun, one for satellite launch plans and one was for a personal defence system. It was a bit of a scrabble and I wasn’t sure who had gone for what but I legged after one team leaving Jacob and Elwood behind to study a communication system. I did not like leaving him behind. The other group went after the satellite information, I found later.
After a running foot chase under fire, we found the mutant and got the Fusion-Laser Tactical Weapon System (FLTWS). It was a hard and difficult chase. I wasn’t sure who was on the mission and many of us went down. I was desperately trying to get to Agro who had gone down in front, fighting hand to hand and then I was down. My vision leaving me I saw the face of my armoured savour. Elwood. Thank the maps he came after us, otherwise I think we all would have died. We returned to the Depot and it was only then we realised the full cost of our mission. NED didn’t return and had been killed. This is why the depot should be named Fort Ned in honour of his sacrifice. He spent much of the Mission fixing the Fort and its fitting it should be named after him.
It was a sombre group that made our way back to Ascendancy territory.
NED next to the comms uplink the engineers Scar and Ned worked on for hours to fix.
We have discovered a number of very interesting things about the area around Pact land. We have discovered that the Mutants are cannibals but also have some level of organisation and scientific knowledge. They can read and write.
We have knowledge of many more villages we can visit and the medics have a lot of scans of Mutant physiology.
It was a successful surface mission during which the FEF pulled together and we made large leaps forward in our understanding and knowledge.
During the latter stages of “Operation Radiation” I was involved in a mission to hack into a HIVE during an assault on a factory. During this mission I saved a copy of the raw code on my PADD for further analysis. My hope had been that we could hack into HIVE communications or at the very least disrupt them somehow.
We were in the outpost discussing the differences between the different ‘crats way of working when we received word from a Fortitude rebel that other members of the group were in a running gunfight with a loyalists group.
After a pitched battle in the dark we rescued a few rebels and found out some relevant information.
We were informed that:
Fortitude morale was terrible.
Foster took on hive and lost huge number of people.
Foster had started executions as a method of control and the people were made to watch
If People deserted they were executed or placed in bomb collars and forced to work.
Hive infiltrated Fortitude’s bunker but were sealed off in a dormitory.
Foster has decided on a show of shock and awe, to take back the forward base. Foster very rarely leaves the command center but may do to do a raid.
Farming was going terribly. Stricken attacks on farming areas were occurring and a Scientist, Caulder was trying to increase yield and couldn’t clean the soil.
After a good discussion with the rebels they requested a compound 7 generator, food and medicine as people were starving. Max and Justin started work immediately in an armoured drone drop for supplies and did a fantastic job of putting everything together quickly.
We also found out that a Medical supply drop was due into Fortitude no one knows who is delivering it or why.
And more horrifically, conscripts with bomb collars were being forced to work and a figure of around 1000 untrained women and children were exucuted for being unhelpful to Fosters cause.
One of the people rescued was Dr Anita Forbes who was quite a senior member of the rebellion. There was a discussion regarding hive weapons and their ability to infect people via the ammunition. We made a request to Major Brennan to see if he and his team could acquire a working gun.
By this point Max and Julian had worked out drone drops can happen and the engineer (the name currently escapes me) had written some very provocative propaganda songs to encourage Foster to leave the bunker and run the raid personally.
The following morning we set out on a mission to meet with rebels and acquire a bit of tech.
We immediately ran into trouble finding a Fortitude defector who had been wearing a bomb collar and who had had his tongue ripped out. We were hit by Fortitude patrols but succeeded in taking down the enemy. We then found a member of the rebels and after analysis it was discovered he had been crushed by power armour.
After being harassed by Fortitude patrols we met with another rebel Wilson who assisted our engineer Jacob getting the Major into a suit of very impressive looking power armour! I mainly tried to stay out of the way and filled up our soldiers’ ammo as needed. It’s amazing to watch the soldiers work together to take down the enemy!
After we got back to base and had some lunch and everyone examined the power armour, we headed out again after learning that the hive were harassing some settlements. We found strange irradiated plants (that after we got back to base with the medics and scientists got excited by) and a trail of bullets and fighting and of bodies being dragged away. But we of the FEF are made of stern stuff and continued following the trail.
We stumbled across a patrol that contained injured members of Bunker Fortitude, there was a tense stand off but after the doc had patched them up they identified themselves as a patrol trying to deal with the Hive (especially the one they call the Widow Maker) which included a high ranking member of Fortitude, Castellan Kincaid. Most of their other members were dead and the remaining ones were very aggressive and understandably so. I tried to reason with them, appealing to their sense of duty to Fortitude to put aside their differences with Bunker Ascendant and work together on the destruction of the hive. They spouted the usual rhetoric of our weakness and inability to make good on our advantages. Julian would not have approved of my language but I didn’t care I needed to get through to them!
It wasn’t until we showed them how effective our FEF team was in the field that they started to realise that we could help them. Kincaid and I bargained for him to come to visit our outpost to talk about the Ascendancy if we escorted his men to safety. The soldiers did a brilliant job of securing the field and killing the Hive and so we got his patrol to safety and he back to the bunker
Progress at last! I contacted Julian immediately to let him know who I was walking into the bunker and handed off Kincaid. After diversing myself of field kit I got straight into the conversation with Julian and Kincaid and watched a master lesson in diplomatic talk from Julian. Kincaid was pretty unpleasant but a product of his upbringing and by the end of the conversation at least had had his convictions challenged.
I spent the rest of the day writing up my notes and recollections and fell asleep on my notebook, missing all the trouble with the investigation into the murders and the bunker traitors.
The next morning I awoke to work from Max that Fortitude forces were surrounding the outpost and soon we were being bombarded with explosives and radiation from a mortar position. I go with the team to take the Mortar position mainly keeping to the back and running forward with ammo when the soldiers needed it. After an amazing display of skill by Dancer to secure the weapons and Jacob to deactivate them and make them safe for our troops we headed back to the outpost and defended it against all comers including mech suits and Foster himself that the team managed to take down in short order. I mainly stayed behind the lines running ammo once again, a small but helpful part of the fight.
After Foster was dead, Kincaid came to talk to the FEF and further progress! He’s going to go back to Fortitude and try and show his people there is another way. He is to hold a referendum on the future of Fortitude. Myself, Max, Julian and Doc Shannon are going to go back to Fortitude with the rebel Washington and help set up a fledgling bureaucrat service and do anything else that we can to help.
Upon arrival at Fort Leon, a team was dispatched to scout the area. The team encountered tribes-people wearing bomb collars, which were found to be controlled by Bunker Fortitude. Recons also found potential bedded in enemies, and learned of a force headed towards some of the farmland used to feed the 500.
During the evening the relay dish was attacked and temporarily disabled. The enemy forces were dealt with and the dish repaired. Engineers have noted that the relay dish equipment was old and in need of updating.
The situations were discussed and it was decided to send two missions out the next day, one in the morning, there was an area that the scientists wished to recover samples from, and the second would meet the incoming enemy force, which was on course to arrive in the afternoon.
The team left in the morning and headed towards map reference M9, in an irradiated area. The sample retrieval was successful. During the mission FEF operatives encountered enemies found to be using 10 year old bunker tech, which it was discovered had been provided by the individual known as Gideon.
A machine was also discovered which was sending date from the outside, into the bunker on an unofficial channel. It seemed that Gideon had been in contact with someone on the inside, which we believed to be traitors. The FEF forces were able to ascertain where the signal was being sent to, and the co-ordinates were sent to the bunker, who dispatched security to the location and dealt with the matter internally.
It was learned that Gideon was an AI, possibly created by AICE. With what we learned about Dictate 24, which will be described later in this report, Gideon would have been created to counter the council’s decision to suppress the Dictate.
A reporter had been sent to the surface with the FEF to document surface activities. On Saturday the reporter, Sophie Jones, divulged the real reason for her presence, dictate 24.
Dictate 24 declared that a council member could only hold office for 18 months. This was in order to prevent councillors from using their positions to further their own interests. This dictate had been suppressed, and the FEF, learning the truth, agreed to assist the ASCII reporter in divulging this information to the bunker. In order to offer some stability after the disruption this revelation would cause, a timeline for council elections was proposed and the FEF also put operatives forward for the council positions.
The FEF also learned that Lucas Miller, the Medic Council Member had been kidnapped by Fortitude. On Sunday a large team was dispatched to rescue Surgeon Miller. Whilst this operation was underway Fort Leon was able to listen in to the bunker’s internal security radio, and discover that troops were being dispatched to that location. Some of the rebellion was also witnessed through this channel.
The FEF were ultimately unsuccessful with the rescue attempt of Surgeon Miller, with Fortitude willing to murder him rather than risk losing their captive.
The rest of the FEF forces were allocated to deal with what they called a Witch. This mission was successful and the Witch was effectively dealt with.
Addendums
Fortitude
On the 2nd night of the operation 2 residents of Fortitude were discovered and captured. The tale they told was very grim. The details here are as was told to the bureaucracy but the Fortitude citizen had only old notes and rumours quietly learned from a very careful, small underground rebellious faction.
Around 70 years ago Fortitude was led like Ascendant, with the 5 council members and an AI overseeing the bunker. Strangers visited the bunker, and with them they brought the idea of change. That Bureaucrats and Scientist were unnecessary, that democracy was detrimental to the running of a bunker, that only strength mattered. After a short conflict of around a week, the council had been removed, and instead the Military Councillor stood as lone leader of Fortitude. This has continued, with the appointment being held for life, and the successor being a solider. Science and bureaucracy have been banned, the only professions allowed are Military, Engineering or Medic. People who can not work are evicted. A citizen has 5 days to recover from an illness or injury. If they can not return to work after this they are put onto reduced rations. If they cannot work after an additional short period then they are evicted on to the surface with no assistance. Residents are not paid. They work or they are left outside to die.
There is a small, cautious group of dissenters who have heard that Ascendant do things differently, that feed, care for and pay their workers. The aim for this particular escape was to reach the FEF and to hopefully send back word that the rumours were true.
An additional story was that the visitors had been from another vault, where the Military led, and that they had visited other vaults and changed their government structures too.
