Vault 10
Contents
History
Vault 10 emerged around a deep nuclear war bunker with the same name, located in the Freedom Hall. The Vault 10 was a large, partially underground nuclear mining, industry and research complex, encompassing all stages from uranium mining to production of combat-ready warheads.
After surviving nuclear strike, Vault 10 remained as a closed underground system concerned only about survival, but on the night of September 11 the massive doors have opened, and the first inhabitants, wearing armored environment suits with dark black visors, and armed to the teeth, carefully stuck their guns out of the vault.
Today Vault 10 is a small, socially progressive nation of hard-working scientists and engineers, continuing their traditional business: producing top-grade nuclear weapons and renting them to ones who have enemies to incinerate.
Government and economy
The constitutional system of Vault 10 requires a referendum to be held in order for any new law to be passed, with voting via the electronic network. While major laws require confirmation by 50% of the population, minor laws can pass with just good support among ones voting. As a drawback this has led to a number of flashmob-induced laws, restricting religions and allowing many obscure activities like streaking.
Economy of Vault 10 is built around weapons trading and heavy industry. Vault 10 economy has passed different stages, starting as a fully state-owned business inside the Vault, spreading into large corporations, which latyer totally seized all power, and, finally, government and corporations administrations merged. Today the government is so intertwined with companies that it's hard to tell whether it is corporation-controlled state or state-controlled business. Everyone is free to start his own business, however large profitable business owners pay more income tax to the common pool than the average of 33%.
Economy of Vault 10 once was developing in all directions, but, however, some industries proved inferior. The civilian cars built in Vault 10 were just unarmed military ones, and, being uncomfortable, lost customers. Soon after that a dedicated study of economics was done, and it was decided to completely abolish all tariffs, allowing only profitable businesses to survive. Vault 10 maintains underground bases sufficient for all basic needs of the inhabitants, but everything else is obtained by whatever means are more economically preferable, export taking most of the GDP and import most of consumption.
Ecology
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Major nuclear strikes and fallout, both from nuclear weapons and from uranium mines and destroyed industries have greatly influenced biosystems on the surface. Dense forests are mixed up with lifeless wastelands, and animals are greatly varied. While most areas are clean from radioactive contamination, every citizen or approved visitor can receive long-term and short-term radiation protection pills, and compact dosimeters are embedded in all coats, vests and jackets produced in Vault 10. One of the most popular pets is a radiation-resistant cat of unique Vault 10 breed.
Art
Vault 10 is strongly supportive of all forms of independent art, while strongly discouraging popular centralized culture. Elaborate graffiti graces every city's streets, interior and exterior of factories, and if people don't decorate their houses themselves someone else does it overnight. The official color palette for ships, planes and vehicles is Three-Dimensional Graffiti, drawn by the crew, which has a side-effect of confusing opponents. Independent bands of all sorts are playing in thousands of clubs all over the cities, on the streets, in the underground vaults, and every military ship (due to lack of strictly civilian ones) has a small rock club aboard.
Ideology
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Freedom of speech is held to its highest, and each citizen is entitled to a personal virtual server and yearly five minutes on one of the TV channels. Shows with explicitly insulting racist, ageist, elitist and counterelitist material, like Bigtopians Say the Darndest Things are among the most popular ones, and the public laughs upon everyone not excluding themselves.
The population of Vault 10 is widely recognized as being one of the most cynical in The World. All religious organizations are charged with spreading bogus theories, demanded to pay full taxes, and required to insert disclaimers that their preaches are not based on any facts, and as result there are none of them in Vault 10. People of the Vault have always maintained critical view on religion, but, however, it is not outlawed, and there is a church in Vault 10 - Church's Chicken fast food restaurant.
Since law system of Vault 10 is held as simple as possible, all sorts of morality-related laws have been removed long ago. Some nations have expressed concerns about morality of Vault 10, demanding their citizens to never come close to the borders of Vault 10 [1] or decided to wear "full body condoms"[2]. According to intelligence data, the latter are primitive spacesuits which have cameras and display instead of glass and microphone-headphones system, both of which are remotely controlled and are shut down by the Morality Observing Officer if he notices something inappropriate.
Defense and law enforcement
Defense budget of Vault 10 is 0 caps, which is fully sufficient to deter any nation from considering attack. Instead of centralized army Vault 10 relies on its corporations for defense. As the major export product is fully assembled nuclear missiles of all sorts, a few thousands of them are always waiting for customer in ready-to-fire condition. For other matters the official policy is "Government is not responsible for any use of rented weapons", and the corporations frequently rent weapons to proxy rogue states for 1 cap with condition to be immediately fired upon a specified target.
Internal crime defense relies on citizens themselves. Everyone receives army training, is allowed to buy personal weapons, and anyone committing a crime can be legally killed on spot or hunted. Cameras in public places have been banned, and it is illegal for police officers to directly carry out searches due to strict privacy laws. The nation's youth is held blameless for light crimes, and citizens are encouraged to prevent crime and educate the young ones.
