Work Text:
Fallout: The Apocalypse
The Y2k bug is the result of a long planned Glasswalker assault on the Weaver. Despite the preparations of the Humans, as 1999 turns into 2000 Japan, New Zealand, Australia go dark. New Year parties turn into chaos and rioting. With help from the Ratkin assaults are made on Pentex facilities- the Wyrm’s forces are roundly attacked even as the Weaver’s web is shattered as the shutdown rolls around the world.
The globe falls into darkness- the Y2K infection is in anything with a chip; down as far as washing machines or fridges. TV, cars, servers, calculators- everything dies. Only old school analogue power stations, such as the hydro planets, and ironically most of the nuclear ones are still churning out power for the people who can receive it.
By the end of the first few day’s cities are in chaos as people try and leave for the country. Stores are being looted for food as the distribution network is broken. Police and the military are also paralysed, with local commanders taking things into their own hands to try and restore order. Things get nasty and violent. Vampires work to protect their herds or go into a feeding frenzy since the Masquerade is broken. Mages work to restore reality, but they are under assault since the Weaver’s collapse is affecting how magic works and the Wyld’s resurgence among the chaos is causing massive backlash. The Changelings suddenly find lots of lost kin as the calcified webs are shattered.
The Garou and Changing Breeds score success after success. The Brazilian rainforest is cleared and cleansed of the Wyrm’s forces. Multiple hives fall and loads of baneful spirits are locked away. The Uktena, Wendigo, and Red Talons are too busy fighting the Wyrm and Weaver’s forces to even attack the city folk coming into the country. Mages are particularly targeted by the Garou.
For nearly 8 years the Wyld’s chaos pushes back at the Weaver and Wyrm. The latter is somewhat free from the Weaver’s web leading to unpredicted things such as Black Spiral Dancers (BSD) helping the Garou tear down Weaver infrastructure. Yet the Weaver and her ‘clever monkey’s’ are not done- the Humans roll out older technology- starting with communications – old transistor radios appear, analogue cars, mechanical phone exchanges are brough back online; old trucks, planes, and even ships are brought back to life. Guns still work and slowly the surviving governments rally.
The Ratkin refuse to accept the resurgence of the Weaver and while their involvement is never proved Project L155 fails containment in the middle of Denver releasing a massive amount of man-made pathogen. The New Plague spreads exceptionally quickly, killing millions in the Denver area and even into Canada. A Great Panic erupts, which only helps spread the disease. CDC and West Tek start projects to try and counter the New Plague- but progress is slow without modern computers.
In the USA the government decide to use a time where America felt safe to underpin the return to continuity, before the Crash, before the Darkness and the 1950’s are picked as the time when the country was at its most optimistic. The aesthetics, fashions, and designs are dusted off, slightly updated to remove the racist elements, and reintroduced to the public. The ‘can do’ positive, optimistic attitude catches on. Alongside the fashions, and music also comes the belief in nuclear power- those who kept their lights on happily tell everyone how much nuclear saved them. The Army was soon squishing out pockets of resistance and bringing order (and the Weaver) back to the cities.
For Europe the governments of the EU ended up stuck in a late 70’s/80’s discopunk style, the Weaver always stronger in the densely packed continent got its claws in faster than other places, and soon a European wide European Commonwealth was established.
Around the world other governments are gone, replaced by warlords or petty Kings. In Russia the Soviet Union makes a return- at first authoritarian but slowly falling back into an oddly open place reflecting almost an ‘idealised USSR’ under Changeling influence, though the Soviets have learnt to fear the forests that have grown wild over Siberia. China goes the other way becoming more paranoid, repressive, and closed as Mao style hardliners take control. Across the Middle East dictators are in charge. Israel ‘suspended’ rule of law for the duration, even going on a genocidal expansion to prevent her neighbours invading. South America and Africa are a mess of revolutions, warlords, and death – the Changing Breeds of the continent, along with the Garou purging much of the Wrym and Weaver’s servants. The race war in South Africa is a hotspot feeding the Wrym and Wyld but even the Vampires cannot stop the slaughter there.
Nuclear power stations start springing up. Companies like Poseidon Energy tapped into the increased support and build huge plants. Though they did flirt with solar power (such as at HELIOS ONE), and even coal fired stations, nuclear was the up-and-coming power source. Europe invests less in alternative energy sources than the States due to its growing influence in the Middle East, where EC troops are holding down several countries for ‘security’ (read oil) reasons.
Across the world the ‘dead tech’ from Before – anything from the mid-80’s on is recycled or archived or simply landfilled. Histories are rewritten to reflect the time the Weaver has ‘stuck’ a location at, anything since then is shuffled to one side or ignored for warlord of the week’s cult of personality.
In 2016 The now recreated United States is reorganized into thirteen Commonwealths: each encompassing several states. In theory this is to make the administration of each Commonwealth easier if a major crisis arises again. The newly resurgent Soviet Union and Red China happily play into the fears of Communism, so the new setup is accepted. The flag is redesigned to reflect the changes.
The Garou have been out manoeuvred by the Weaver here, the Cities and especially the American West Coast megapolis have been firmly brought back under its control and web is strong and holding that 50’s aesthetic in place. The central plains and Canada remain much freer, and the back woods of the States are not safe.
In Europe the EC recreate computer networking with room sized value powered computers acting as servers. The Weaver is stronger in the Old World and the remaining Glasswalkers almost fall into her sphere, only for the Bone Gnawers to rescue them. King Albrecht survives an assassination attempt by BSD’s leading to a breakdown in cooperation with them, at least in America.
Despite how good America looked on the surface underneath the people in power knew things where about to go wrong. World oil was projected to start dying up by as soon as 2050 along with shortages of nuclear fuel. A consolidated group led by Vampire Elders formed the Enclave to manage what they thought would be a Second Great Crash. Project Safehouse is started to find ways to help preserve Humanity (or at least the chosen bits of the herd). Everything from giant Vaults to Space Arcs, to alternative energy sources is investigated.
Mr House of RobCo reinvents microchips but withholds the data- his own planning has seen the shadow government, and the supernatural elements out there and decides he does not want the attention.
The invention of Microfusion devices by a Clan Lasmonbra owned company called Mass Fusion are heralded as a way of preventing another energy crash – ignoring the fuel they need. The invention, like the HELIOS One Upgrade Project is too late as 2052 bring the Oil Crisis to the front pages as the EC goes bankrupt and fully invades the last oil fields in the Middle East engulfing the area in fire. Hyper inflation hits the world economy and the UN collapses.
A Blue Flu variant of the New Plague appeared in 2053, but again the Ratkin denied anything to do with it. Many of the Garou disbelieved them, but the capture of a BSD pack pouring chemical waste into the water supply for Reno did lead credence to the Blue Flu being a Wyrm operation. A Tzimisce Elder starts the Pan-Immunity Viron Project to experiment with the variant plague.
After Tel Aviv and Jerusalem were destroyed in nuclear fire in 2054, along with the Final Death of the Antediluvian Malkavian who lived under the Old City, the Theurges began to get warning of a ‘cataclysm to come’ – the long-awaited Apocalypse. The Garou did not know when exactly, but they began to prepare for the Final Days by moving Kinfolk to deep forests, stocking up on weapons, fetishes, and protecting the Cearns with new runes. The Garou told the Changing Breeds who began their own preparations. Unlike the Vampires, the Garou keep their kinfolk out of the vaults that Vault-Tek began construction of the same year.
When Europe collapsed in 2060, exhausted from the Resource Wars the standards of living fell back to something closer to the early 20th century. The old places of power the Mages held fell. Changelings discovered magic springing up across the old world as convents fell apart. The Weavers hold fell apart across the continent and civilisation disintegrated. The Wyrm and Wyld profited most from the destruction and the Garou were run ragged trying to protect kinfolk and Cearns from Human and supernatural threats. The Glass Walkers, Bone Gnawers, and Finanna all but merged trying to hold things together.
The Americans invaded Canada in 2066 looking to strip mine its resources, they found a hard fight awaiting them in the forests – huge sections of the provinces simply where off limits to them. The non-Kinfolk who there were told not to ‘overpopulate’. The Red Talons and Uktena resented the other tribes ‘moving in’ but they also understood they could not resist alone, particularly with the Chinese invading Alaska as well.
On Halloween 2067 A Gurahl called Simon appeared at a Grand Moot of the Tribes – shocking all present by telling the Garou the Wyrm would wake up in ten years; specifically, the Great Wyrm spirit Eater-of-Souls, the Wyrm of Consumption, thrown into Slumber by the sacrifice of the entire Croatan tribe in the 16th century was waking up. The new terrified and shocked the Garou. Some demanded proof from Simon and he opened a gate to allow a Mokolé, Nyi Feathered Thunder to step into the Moot. The Garou where incensed that the Gurahl could tear their Cearns’s security apart, but Evan Heals-The-Past, Wendigo Elder, and leader of the hosting Cearn ordered they stand down. Others came through the portal, elders from the Ratkin, Corax, Ajaba, Bastet, Nagah, Kitsune, Nuwisha, Ananasi, and Rokea – for the first time in centuries a representative of all the Changing Breeds stood in the same place. It was Nyi who repeated what Simon had warned – all of them knew the final days where coming, they had come to see what the plans of the Garou where and if they could stand together – if not they would depart.
Many of the Garou could clearly be seen being held back from attacking by others. Some were more contemplative; then a Moon Bridge opened and brought the only tribe not present, one who had withdrawn from the Garou Nation due to the Middle East conflagration- the Silent Striders joined the Moot, bringing with them several members of the eastern Beast Courts. Their arrival changed the atmosphere- as the Strider Elder confirmed the prediction that the Wyrm stirred in the Umbra and would soon awake. King Albrecht took charge and plans began to be made, Fera and Garou alike.
The escalating war vs China saw the Garou mostly helpless, few of the tribes covered that area, and the Beast Courts could do nothing to stem the tide of violence. It was the Vampires who approached the Bone Gnawers of Hong Kong asking for help, but the Garou could do little but help protect the few Kinfolk in the area and pacify any spirits they could with the support of the Mokolé. Even in the US the Garou were stretched thin preparing for the Eater-of-Souls to do much more vs the BSD’s, and other Wrym agents. All through 2075 Garou reported patten spiders, and other Weaver constructs being very active as the last Vaults where completed and food/energy riots started across the US Commonwealths – it was believed the Weaver was moving to protect what it could from the war. Attempts were made to communicate with the Weavers agents, but with little progress.
News network revelation of FEV sees a Garou raiding party take place, with many convinced the FEV is a Pentex invention, despite the collapse of that Corp in 2001. The Strike squad are met with a base defended by robots, and vampire thralls- the Garou get through to find the facility has been gutted and the experiments moved - given the impending awakening the strike squad withdraw.
With as many Kinfolk removed from the cities, or in shelters otherwise the Changing Breeds prepared for the Eater-of-Souls awakening. BSD and other Wyrm agents had been particularly active and the Garou were expecting a huge ritual to be discovered as the spark that awoke the spirit, they where therefore wrong footed when the blow did not come from the Umbra but from China. Wyrm agents among the leadership launched the country’s nuclear arsenal at the United States on October 23rd with a large number of bombs aimed at certain key nexus points in the mid-west.
The Garou on the ground stood little chance as atomic bombs exploded among them. Many survived due to frantic warnings from allies in the military regarding the launch, but many warriors perished in the blasts, and with the destructive fluctuations to the entire planet’s physical and magical atmosphere- with Gaia moaning in agony, the Eater-of-Souls awoke.
Led by the radiation burned King Albrecht the forces of Gaia launched themselves into a desperate fight with the Wyrm and its minions. Rituals teams at several points worked to pull the thing back into Slumber. The Wyrm seemed to get stronger feeding off the atomic death from around the globe, however the tide turned when Vampire sorcerers from Clan Tremere arrived along with a few surviving Mages – their strange magic harder for the Wyrm of Consumption, to absorb and adapt to. Yet, it was the appearance of thousands, possibly millions of spiders that finally broke the beast’s resistance- with the Weavers web utterly shattered across the broken world the Ananasi Queen Ananasa had finally broken free of the cocoon jail the Weaver kept her in, now her and her children bit into Eater-of-Souls with all the venom they could muster.
Affected by the poison of the Ananasi, the magics of Vampire and Mage alike, plus the weapons, rituals and claws of the Changing Breeds Eater-of-Souls succumbed and was sent back to sleep in Slumber, bound with the willing sacrifice of many of the wounded and dying, among them King Albrecht whose last command was that the Changing Breed should pick a unity leader.
If there had been any Humans alive to see the battle they would not have lived long, the toxins and poisons unleashed by Eater-of-Souls and its corrupted allies had served poisoned the air and land. Only the supernatural nature of the fighters had kept many alive. The poison would spread creating what became called the Wasteland which nothing would grow in even after most of the radiation had dispersed.
In the days that followed the host split- the Mages first, there where pitifully few left and they went to ground among the Human survivors. The Vampires outside North America and China fared better but most in the US would go into torpor or lesser generations where simply killed by survivors or mutants- Super Mutant blood being extremely toxic to them.
The Changing Breeds elected Simon the Gurhal as King, but it was a bittersweet coronation. The first order of business was putting out the fires in the Amazon and African forests, then a grand survey of the Cearns and sacred places which took decades to complete.
For the Garou many Kinfolk survived, especially in Canada and Siberia, but so many where gone. The Glasswalkers, Bone Gnawers and Children of Gaia merged into a new tribe – the Gardeners as they tried to bring Green back to the world. The few Black Furies left split up among the other tribes; the others did fairly well, particularly the Shadow Lords with the majority of their Kinfolk alive across Siberia and the Steppes.
There where calls among some of the Red Talons, Uktena, and Rokea for a new Imperguim to cull the remaining Humans, but there was little support citing the fact that even after an atomic war there were still more of the Humans than Changing Breeds. In some areas survivors of 2077 or their decedents would learn the forests where off limits, enforced by savage claws.
As the decades passed the Garou population underwent somewhat of a boom relatively, Gaia blessing her defenders. The Gardeners grew fastest, though their acceptance of Metis children, and Ghoul Kinfolk played some part in distancing them from the other tribes. Across the world the Changing Breeds found the lack of pressure from encroaching Humanity a way to recover old ground or live peacefully – despite the hardships of the wastelands.
The rise of the NCR, and the Boston Commonwealth, plus the growing settlements across Europe, Africa and China mean that the Changing Breeds will inevitably come into conflict with Humanity, the Vampires who prey on them, or the other supernatural’s because the Changing Breeds will be reluctant to give up what they have earned, and Rage, Rage never changes.