Vault 10
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| National motto: Ad infinitum | |||||
| Capital | Vault City (103,748) | ||||
| Largest city | Hub (450,000 constant, 800,000 total) | ||||
| Government | Unheard of | ||||
| UN Status | 
| ||||
| Nation Code | V10 | ||||
| Area | 233,200,000km2 total - 75,000km2 habitable (est.) - 30% water (total) | ||||
| Population | ca. 2 billion | ||||
| GDP (nominal) - Total - Per capita |
N$200+ trillion N$105,000 | ||||
| GDP (PPP) - Total - Per capita |
100+ trillion caps 52,000 caps | ||||
| Establishment | After WWIII | ||||
| Major Religions | Agnosticism, Atheism, Discordianism | ||||
| Currency Value ISO Code |
Bottle cap = N$ 2.04 CAP | ||||
| Internet TLD | .v10 .vt | ||||
| Calling Code | 10 | ||||
| Ship Classification | None (depends on corporation) | ||||
| Power consumption - Total - Per capita |
73,530 TWh/year, 8,388 GW average 48,500 kWh/year, 5,600 W average | ||||
| Power production | 92,500 TWh/year, 10,552 GW average | ||||
Vault 10 isn't actually a nation in the strictest sense, but rather a conglomeration of city-states created on ruins of multiple nations after a devastating nuclear war, usually referred to simply as the War. The name refers to the Vaults, underground nuclear-ready bunkers, which sheltered people deemed most valuable through the War.
Contents
History
An entire continent, diverse in its ecology, but mostly mountainous and thriving, once was filled with tens of more and less democratic countries, peacefully coexisting and developing. The largest of them specialized in all sorts of nuclear industries, exporting enriched uranium, nuclear reactors and just energy; the military exports were not uncommon, and thousands of missiles left the land yearly. Being this close to nuclear industry, concerns about safety were high, and tens of Vaults, deep underground bunkers, prepared to withstand nuclear strikes and survive autonomously, existed in the countries. Close ties and relations were maintained within, and it seemed like they would never be needed, but the external world was more harsh.
A small conflict with an insane nazi dictator from the other side of the planet resulted in a sudden nuclear attack. To make things worse, not only the cities were wiped out, but, with extreme malice, the enemy targeted the nuclear industry, from uranium mining and power production to waste reprocessing and storage. Thousands of Chernobyl-like disasters hit all around the country, covering it in radioactive materials, and few could survive outside the Vaults, the only reminders of the civilization left. While the response, turning the attackers into a glassy wasteland, saved from consequent invasion by conventional forces, it couldn't undo the harm done.
After surviving the nuclear strike, the Vaults remained as closed underground systems concerned only about their own survival. Many years have passed, until one night the signal "clear" was received from the monitoring sensors, indicating that it was possible to live on the surface. Massive doors opened, and the first expeditions, in armored environment suits with dark black visors, armed to the teeth, carefully stuck their guns out of the Vaults.
The 10th bunker wasn't particularly special by itself: it was just one of the college vaults, specifically one under the National Advanced Science University campus. The university was mostly dedicated to nuclear physics and computer science, rapidly developing disciplines these days.
The university held the largest Demoscene party in the nation, on the day the War happened. The nuclear escalation wasn't unexpected: lots of demos and art were already dedicated to criticism of the war - and the signal to evacuate wasn't taken lightly. In fact, the University was far enough from any cities and military bases, so wasn't a priority target in the strike, and the experimental ballistic missile defense worked well, leaving it one of the areas untouched by the War. Still, the Vault proved crucial in providing products, energy and houses to thousands of party guests.
But the special thing about Vault 10 turned out to be not the clean environment and not even the University, but rather the demoscene party which formed its population. Young, liberal and intelligent people gathered there realized one important thing - the War was not the enemy's fault, not even the fault of people in the government, but rather the fault of the [i]government itself[/i], the very fact of existence of such a construct.
As the fallout cleared somewhat, inhabitants of these bunkers emerged to the surface - but the surface was nothing like before. Heavily mutated creatures roamed the land, and the survivors on the surface lived in the state of anarchy. Overfilled with envy and hatred, the gangs met the expeditions only with fire. However, there were already organizations which wished stability. Assisted with technology from the Vaults, their power grew immensely, and the newly-formed city of Hub soon broke free from the power of warring factions. The massive port of SF was assisted by ships with refugees from another country. As the Navy returned to their military base, a boneyard was all they found and was how the place became called from now on, controlled with military discipline. But it wasn't long before conflicts spread within and between the alliances. If they recreate a country, how will it be named? Who should control it, and how?
Only one alliance continued without internal conflicts - it had no name, alliance, and was known simply as the alliance of Vault 10. The first point of their constitution oath went as this: [b]"We will never create, or let exist in our lands, any body exercising enforced power over more than a million of people, not allowed to leave its influence at will, no matter what the need for it or the cost of eliminating it may be."[/b] First appealing just to anarchists and punks from places like Junktown, these ideas soon brought at their side Hub, the economic center of the new land. The knowledge and determination of people helped Hub-Vault10 alliance to survive the civil wars and create a wonder among the ruins - an aircraft factory. The gangs had nothing to oppose the aviation, and, as other Vaults opened and joined Hub, and more and more cities stood up, the forces managed to overcome the anarchy, pushing it into distant regions. As time passed, the name of Vault 10 became associated with combination of freedom and peace the inhabitants fought for, and, as no government was even intended, the alliance had no formal name. As it was typically just named "Vault 10", the name stuck to the alliance of small city-states they forged.
The rivalry between the Vaults still continues, but Vault 10 was chosen to be the common representative of the unified country, to represent the formal government.
Government and economy
Vault 10 consists of the underground facilities and the aboveground society. After surviving massive nuclear destruction which incinerated most of the former populations, Vault 10 is strictly held to the principle of extending underground vaults as the population grows, and regularly training for a fast, efficient total evacuation. The underground shelter facilities, once completed, are considered a part of the Vault and kept ready by small groups of people, ruled by the Coordination Center, the government of Vault 10.
The aboveground economy has passed different stages, starting as a extension of state-owned businesses above. These businesses then spread into large companies, which, with overwhelming support by referendum, declared independence of all aboveground facilities. Coordination Center retained only advisory powers over everything except the Vault itself, with the aboveground society comprised entirely of various corporations. As time passed, however, the world grew more dangerous and nuclear-armed, and companies have progressively moved to constructing all expensive facilities underground, widely dispersed and protected by thick layers of ground and stone. Today little industrial construction is done on the surface, and cities are progressively growing back underground, many people finding just elevators to the Vault facilities insufficient. Vault-Tec, the major company responsible for construction of the vault facilities, is experiencing steady stock value growth.
However, the community retains the simple Vault's constitution, which requires a referendum for adding or removing any law, with voting via the electronic network. As a drawback, this has led to a number of flashmob-induced laws, restricting religions and protecting many obscure activities like streaking. The laws are not actually enforced due to the lack of government, but some community-minded volunteer organizations keep an eye on everything, and corporate security forces usually keep their rules in compliance with most important laws. Notable among them is the international Standart Security Corporation, which has a policy of assisting police in protecting the law, which in case of Vault 10 with no police made SSC de-facto law enforcement agency.
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. Modern export economy of Vault 10 is built around weapons trading, aerospace and heavy industries. Vault 10's major imports are organic foodstuffs, nano-materials and non-ferrous metals primarily from Hotdogs2 due to their close proximity and good trading ties.
Currently the largest corporation in Vault 10 is Aerospace Logistics, directly or indirectly employing 10% of population, with Symmetriad/VaultTec Consortium rivaling. The major corporations have the No Liability Company status, making them mostly exempt from the law.
Ecology
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 bulletproof coats, vests and jackets produced in Vault 10.
One of the most popular pets is radiation-resistant cat of unique Vault 10 breed. Originally developed in genetic laboratories, these cats remained on the surface, and their flexible genes adapted to radiation to the highest extent, allowing them to seize power exceeded only by geckos.
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 (and sometimes sexually stimulating) the 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 to wear "full body condoms"[2]. According to intelligence data, the latter are primitive spacesuits with cameras and displays instead of glass and microphone-headphones system, both of which are remotely controlled and are shut down by the Morality Observing Officer once he notices something inappropriate. The best sightseeing for such tourists is usually a weapon test, since even space launches are full of uncenzored advertisements.
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 customers 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 encouraged to buy personal weapons, and anyone committing a crime can be legally killed on spot or hunted for joy and training. Cameras in public places have been banned, and it is illegal for police officers to directly carry out searches, so focus is on crime prevention and deterrence rather than prosecution. The nation's youth is held blameless for light crimes, and citizens are encouraged to prevent crimes and educate the young ones, which some of them do in very harsh ways.
Transport system
Vault 10 shares many distinctive features, which could be compared with the pre-Bush United States, Japan, Soviet Union and Hell. The common feature with the US is ethnic diversity; the Vault resembles Japan in corporate culture and mountainous terrain, only the mountains are even worse. The cold weather, location right next to the arctic cap, and vast unpopulated, barely habitable terrain, remind one of teh Soviet Union. Finally, the safety of land travel in Vault 10 resembles Hell.
With many thousands of miles to pass, young mountains and cliffs all around, there are few practical ways to get around between the small, widely dispersed cities. For industry, Kriegsbahn has a few railroads, where wide, hermetically sealed trains carry around bulk goods and people in radiation-shielded cars, which are decontaminated upon arrival. Inter-vault subways are clean, but as well offer just a few lines, due to immense expenses involved in their construction. The only answer was air travel, and it wasn't as impractical as it seemed, as both lightweight aircraft and heavy liners reach 77 mpg per passenger fuel economy. Cars and even buses were completely incompetitive even without counting road network cost, and that network would be simply impossible even despite the frightening economy.
Of course, Aerospace Logistics, the consortium of actually almost independent companies, became as powerful as nobody else. With time, they established the victory and nailed the automotive coffin, banning cars off the cities streets, manipulating the greenies - who could think that by some coincidence people would just buy planes? Of course, a company which ten years before, among the ruthless capitalizm and anarchy, has proven itself so kind and philanthropic to create and sponsor thousands of free piloting and aircraft-DIY clubs for the nation's youth, couldn't have mercantile plans in mind, it funded the greenies just to help preserve whatever remains of environment the country had left. Besides, the company didn't rip people off, but instead dropped the prices and offered cheap kits which teenagers could easily assemble; and trading in a good car, to be sold abroad, sometimes could cover the cost, so in the economic boom nobody but the poor noticed a drop in their budget. As the short-term economy rush reached its peak, long-term investments became more and more common. As the paranoia about the new nuclear war took place of the excitement of rebirth (Vault-Tec, of course, playing absolutely no role in creating that hype), the companies took a much more serious take on the protection of their assets, and more and more industries, mostly expensive ones, were built underground, the mountains above ensuring safety even under massive bombardment. With cities slowly being complemented by the Vaults again, people as well preferred to sleep under their protection, leaving the surface mostly for recreation. The bolts sealing the cars' coffin were welded, as they lost even potential use.
International trade
As a nation handicapped in surface operations, Vault 10 maintains extensive merchant navy, counting billions of deadweight tons. Most imports are comprised of food, resources, and chemical products. In the high-tech field, major trading and industrial exchanges have been made with Axis Nova, British Londinium, Clandonia Prime and Hotdogs2.
Controversial decisions
As safety of all products and systems was explored, it was decided that the responsibility of companies is to prevent major damage from anything. Under pressure of the Vault-Tec Fire Dept., it became forbidden to use flammable materials in buildings construction or products, with few exceptions where there is no replacement.
Cars are banned in Vault 10, and citizens can either use extensive rail systems, Aerospace Logistics transport for long flights, or improve their health by walking the green streets of Vault 10 cities, free from automotive transport. Many consider the ban redundant and unnecessary, since cars were already falling out of use, and point out that aircraft are hardly better. Others argue that, due to destruction of intercity roads and large cities, cars were nothing but a show-off.
Persons
One of the most influential people in Vault 10 is Nick F., 32 years old.
Nick F., as he is known in all official documents, is today the prime stockholder of Vault-Tec, as well as the current CEO and one of the major stockholders of the Aerospace Logistics Corporation. Vast profits in international contracts on rebuilding entire nations' defenses and ownership of all territory and natural resources of Vault 10 controlled lands by Vault-Tec bring the value of his stock up to many teracaps. However, most of these assets are not fully tangible, as limited supply plays major role in increasing Vault-Tec and ALC stock value. The potential value of natural resources alone corresponds for about half of his assets value. Little is known about the personal life of Nick F., since he keeps a certain degree of privacy and avoids excessive interference with the business. He isn't known to spend major funds except for the purpose of increasing his stock value, and usually travels discreetly on his personal stealth fighter, rather than large special widebodies. Known as the most efficient investor in the modern world and one of the most pragmatic businessmen, Nick F. remains the role model for many of the "new money" executives and investors.
His parents, a family of a military cosmonaut and a highly controversial sociologist, met in a Vault-Tec complex, being among the few fortunate to survive the nuclear war underground, protected by hundreds meters of rock. Born and grown up in Vault 13, Nick, according to his own words, was inspired by the comic book character Dogbert since he was a child, and still admires Dogbert's personality. During the following Civil War he was one of the youngest people to leave the Vault as a military pilot in the citizens' struggle to protect the rebuilding civilization. After just a few years, directly ignoring his orders, Nick used his squadron to capture a rebel-controlled industrial center, following with seizing of other assets under his own control. Before the tribunal was even scheduled, he purchased the company he was working for, using their stock price fall caused by his very actions.
Progressing further as air force general of his mercenary company, Nick eventually came up with the idea of uniting all entities possessing air force into one corporation, which would achieve full airspace domination. Capturing profitable industries and running the stock market behind the scenes, he finally convinced the authorities of Vault 8, Vault 10 and Vault 13 to join his alliance and devote all their power to aerospace output. After establishing superiority, it was only a matter of time until his alliance absorbed most small operators. Together with other large companies, helping them to take over smaller ones, Nick F. initiated their unification into the of Aerospace Logistics Corporation, which soon ended the civil war with previously unimaginable violence and inconsideration.
Serving as the CEO of Aerospace Logistics, Nick F. secured hundreds of personal deals in addition to boosting the corporation's power. The exact details of his takeover of Vault-Tec never became public, and tens of conspiracy theories, ranging from religious ones to secret control of The Symmetriad, sprung up soon after the unexpected event. What is known is that Nick was the one to declare all the territory and resources, up to air, as Vault-Tec property, military power behind him silencing all opposition in the infancy. Soon after the following takeover of Lightning Communications, the major satellite communication provider, most younger people became confident that all resources always were Vault-Tec de-facto property anyway.
Further manipulating financial and industrial markets, Nick left the control of internal affairs to a few handpicked executives, and proceeded to secure assets outside his country of birth. Exploiting less fortunate nations, establishing mutually profitable relationships with corporations, and getting the best contracts out of more fortunate nations, he puts nothing above the long-term efficiency. Working on uniting the international businesses, Nick handpicks and teaches people he considers worthy to lead the new world he struggles to create.
External lynx
NS page NS Draftroom - where the player behind Vault 10 can be found
