Brotherhood of Steel (Fallout: Tactics)

The Midwestern Brotherhood of Steel (also known as the Eastern Brotherhood of Steel) is a splinter faction of the original Brotherhood of Steel. It controls the areas around Chicago.

History
After the defeat of the Master, the original Brotherhood found themselves at odds with their need for new blood versus their code of technological secrecy. The debate went lightly. Finally, the elders ruled against sharing the technology with outsiders, convinced that they would endure what they had before. Further discussion was discouraged and the elders ordered the minority on a mission across the wastes. The Brotherhood constructed airships and dispatched the minority East, to track down and assess the extent of the remaining super mutant threat. However, a great storm broke the main airship and flung it far from its course. The mighty airship was badly damaged. The smaller sections were torn from the main craft and never to be seen again. Many of the expedition leaders, including Paladin Latham, were lost to the winds. The fraction of the crew that still survived, struggled to keep their ship aloft before finally crashing on the outskirts of the ruins of Chicago. The survivors eventually formed a new organization, which diverged greatly from the ideals of the old Brotherhood. In time, they established a harsh rule over the towns and villages in that area.

After long fights with countless raider bands, a warlike technological cult known as the Reavers, and a super mutant army led by mad Paladin Latham, a survivor of one of the other Brotherhood of Steel airships, in 2198 the Brotherhood eventually faced their greatest enemy - a robotic army commanded by the Calculator, mad AI of Vault 0. Eventually, the robots were defeated, but in the course of the war, the Midwestern Brotherhood lost many of its men, and territory.

As of 2277, the splinter faction consists only of a small detachment in Chicago (they probably have only limited influence on the local governments). It has come into some contact with the original, West Coast Brotherhood, but it refused to accept the authority of the Lost Hills elders. Thus, they are considered to be rogue by the rest of the Brotherhood. They also differ from the rest of the Brotherhood as they are willing to accept non-humans into their ranks. During the war with the Calculator, the Midwestern Brotherhood's forces consisted of survivors from the expedition, human recruits from tribes and towns, ghouls, sentient (hairy) deathclaws, and even some supermutants (many recruits came from defeated enemy forces).

Symbol
It is said that in the Brotherhood of Steel symbol, the gears represent their engineering knowledge, the sword is their will to defend themselves, the wings are the uplifting hope, and the circle is the wholeness that makes it a brotherhood.

While the original Brotherhood uses different colors for different elements of the symbol (blue for the wings, grey for the sword and black for the gears), the Midwestern Brotherhood uses the golden/yellow variant for symbolize them.

Squads
The Midwestern Brotherhood operations base on small, versatile squads deployed to engage the enemy. They rarely hold more than ten brothers. A rough listing of more notable squads follows (player's squad excluded):


 * Brimstone - Simon Barnaky's personal guard, composed of battle hardened paladins. Obliterated in St. Louis.
 * Dagger - considered to be the most elite unit in the Midwestern Brotherhood of Steel. Dagger squad helps the warrior during the assault on Vault 0. Their color is blue.
 * Demon - support squad for Brimstone. Obliterated in St. Louis.
 * Falcon - another regular battle squad. He was assigned to watch over Great Bend along with Smear squad.
 * Fang - heavy squad deployed in St. Louis. Destroyed by a supermutant rocket team.
 * Grail - led by Paladin Lancelot, this squad perished in their assault on the Buena Vista Nuclear Power Plant. Dark green team colour.
 * Repo - a squad dedicated to acquisition and transportation of valuable technology.
 * Shadow - regular battle squad of the Brotherhood, deployed in Kansas City to ensure the safety of the nuke.
 * Smear - regular battle squad of the Brotherhood, which, along Shadow squad, was deployed in Kansas City and later in the town of Great Bend, to protect the area from robots that might return.
 * Talon - under the command of Paladin Emerald Solo, the Talons managed to survive St. Louis and evacuate with help from the Warrior. Their color was teal.
 * Tusk - a battle squad that, along with Dagger squad, participated in the war against Calculator. Mentioned in the demo as the ultimate assignment of the demo squad mates.

Related holodisks

 * Journal of Sir Latham
 * General's holodisk to wife Maria

Appearances in games
The Midwestern Brotherhood appears only in Fallout Tactics, but is briefly mentioned in Fallout 3. The names "Midwestern Brotherhood of Steel" was never used in the game, but were made up by fans to differentiate it from the original Brotherhood. "Midwestern" is preferable, as it distinguishes it from the Capital Wasteland Brotherhood of Steel from Fallout 3, active even further East, in the Washington, DC area.