Brotherhood First Expeditionary Force

The Brotherhood First Expeditionary Force, currently referred to as the Appalachian Brotherhood of Steel, is a faction comprising Brotherhood of Steel soldiers sent from Lost Hills to re-establish contact with the original Appalachian Brotherhood. Ever since reaching West Virginia, they have taken the mantle of their brothers and sisters in protecting and gathering technology from all around Appalachia.

Formation
Following the Great War, Captain Roger Maxson used surviving satellites to communicate with survivors across the United States, attempting to recruit them under a common cause, which eventually led to the formation of the Brotherhood of Steel. He succeeded in contacting a former colleague, Elizabeth Taggerdy, who formed a Brotherhood chapter with her Army Ranger unit in Appalachia. Contact was lost with Taggerdy when the satellites failed years later, and the Western Brotherhood was left unaware of the outcome of the Appalachian chapter's war against scorchbeasts and the accompanying Scorched Plague.

The former US National Guard and current Paladin Leila Rahmani requested an expedition to Appalachia. After many years, her request was finally approved by High Elder Roger Maxson and the Council of Elders, and she was appointed as its leader. One of the expedition's critical members was to be Scribe Hailey Takano, but due to health issues, she was not able to take part and was replaced by her student Scribe Odessa Valdez, who had volunteered to take her teacher's position. Three knights were given the task to accompany them, including Alan Connors, another National Guard and close friend of Rahmani, Matthew Thornberry, and Daniel Shin. The expedition's goals were to investigate valued technological sites on their journey across the United States and upon arriving at Appalachia, set up camp at the ATLAS Observatory to investigate the facility's true purpose. In addition, they were to discern the fate of the original Appalachian chapter and to take their mantle if necessary, including the protection of Appalachia's inhabitants. Following that, the group would report their findings back to command.

Journey
Paladin Rahmani led the First Expeditionary Force east from the Lost Hills bunker. Upon reaching the Sierra Nevada, they encountered a group of raiders with a cache of highly advanced weaponry, torturing a captured unit of Brotherhood soldiers. Knight Thornberry personally rescued the soldiers and recovered the technology. This earned the respect of Rahmani, who charged him with the task of safely guiding the wounded soldiers back to Lost Hills and seeing to their recovery.

After crossing the Rocky Mountains, radio communications were lost between Lost Hills and the Expeditionary Force. Over the course of the following months, the scribes at Lost Hills tried to reach the group, but to no avail. Command sent various encrypted radio messages, first while estimating their location near Lincoln, and later ordering the expedition to divert from their primary goal. Another attempt was made, estimating their location as east of the Mississippi, and ordering them to proceed with their original mission in order to establish contact at the target location in Appalachia.

The next radio message was recorded off the record by Elder Roger Maxson via a private channel to Paladin Leila Rahmani. He believed the paladin understood the value and purpose of the Brotherhood of Steel, and despite their disagreements, Maxson hoped the lack of communication was simply due to the inability of answering back. Otherwise, the radio silence would be taken as desertion by the Council of Elders, and Maxson would be overruled in regards to what to do with the expedition and wouldn't be able to defend her anymore.

After more than three months without any contact with the First Expeditionary Force, Elder Maxson sent a last official message to Paladin Rahmani. The scribes estimated they should have already entered the borders of West Virginia and be close to their target destination at the ATLAS Observatory. Maxson's orders for the expedition were to reestablish contact with Lost Hills right after securing the observatory, providing a full report on their whereabouts during their journey, and to represent the Brotherhood in Appalachia.

At some point during their months-long journey, Rahmani and the rest of the First Expeditionary Force encountered a settlement under threat of raiders. Shin decided to equip them with government-issue weaponry they had found in a military facility in the Midwest that they had initially intended to keep for the Brotherhood. However, the weapons proved useless against the raider force, as the settlement was wiped out, with only two young survivors who became Brotherhood refugees: Marcia and Maximo Leone. Because of the loss of Knight Alan Connors and the raiders actually getting strengthened by the looted weapons, the incident would set off a division between Rahmani and Shin, with Shin wanting himself and Rahmani to stand trial with the Council of Elders.

Arrival
Not far from West Virginia, while approaching their destination, Paladin Rahmani broadcasted a message across Appalachia, announcing their arrival and their objective of taking over the ATLAS Observatory, warning any possible occupants to leave the facility. She announced they were going to help the people of Appalachia by providing aid and protection, and that any help would be welcome. Her voice could be heard across the region, becoming more audible with each passing week.

Russell Dorsey, an enthusiast of the old Appalachian Brotherhood, had heard the radio message and was already at the observatory with several Protectrons to aid in its fortification. He, alongside the Vault Dwellers, managed to clear the exterior of the facility and prepare it for the arrival of the expedition.



By the time the First Expeditionary Force reached the ATLAS Observatory, having had crossed over two thousand miles of wasteland over the course of many months, the group itself was made up of only three of the original five Brotherhood personnel. In addition, they had informally recruited many initiates and hopefuls along the way. After establishing their base of operations, they renamed the observatory to Fort Atlas. 

Steel Dawn
During the first months in West Virginia, the new Appalachian Brotherhood established outposts around Fort Atlas and the Wayward, and sent patrols composed of recent initiates and hopefuls to different areas of the region in search of technology. The Brotherhood chapter was also soon inoculated against the Scorched Plague.

Despite one of their primary missions being to reestablish contact with Lost Hills, the group was unable to do it due to the loss of their long-distance communications transmitter at the hands of raiders. Rahmani expresses hesitation to establish contact, as she fears it would result in having their titles stripped and their influence rendered illegitimate. Despite the fact that re-establishing contact was an order in and of itself, Rahmani believes that they could continue on as a sanctioned offshoot nonetheless, able to spread "authority and goodwill across the nation." When the opportunity to activate the transmitter arises, Rahmani destroys it, angering Shin who says she is no longer part of the Brotherhood. Before they can have a long argument, they receive news that Fort Atlas is under attack by super mutants. After an arduous battle, the mutants are defeated.

Steel Reign
By 2104, Rahmani and Shin are still at odds over their Brotherhood's primary mission: Protect the people in Appalachia, or secure all manner of pre-War tech to prevent it from causing another apocalypse like the Great War. They soon discover that the super mutant attack on Fort Atlas was not coincidental. Dr. Edgar Blackburn, one of the people who came to Fort Atlas earlier looking for help from the Brotherhood, only to be turned away by Shin, had been kidnapping people from all over Appalachia to use as test subjects in his research to improve the Forced Evolutionary Virus.



Shin, along with initiates Erika Hewsen and Norland, decide to investigate the Uncanny Caverns after hearing the super mutants may be originating from there. Norland ends up being killed after the group separates and Shin blames himself for the death of someone else again. As they venture further into the cavern, Hewsen ends up becoming caught in an explosive trap and Shin tries to rescue her in his power armor, injuring himself. With Hewsen's aid, they eventually return to Fort Atlas.

Later, Rahmani decided to interview the boss of the Blue Ridge Caravan Company, Joanna Mayfield, about the disappearances. After being guided by Aries, Rahmani learns that Blackburn was among several of the Blue Ridge's caravans, especially one that holed up in the Harpers Ferry tunnel due to a radstorm. After Blackburn was captured during his work inside Vault 96, Rahmani and Shin take him to the West Tek research center, where his fellow scientists Farha, Jain and Nellie Wright were putting the final touches on the FEV to release into the water and air, which would lead to more people being turned into super mutants once exposed, a worst-case scenario even worse than Huntersville. In a bid to prove their research is for the betterment of humanity in the wasteland, Blackburn willingly volunteers to be exposed to the virus himself, but a miscalculation or malfunction in the process causes Blackburn to be turned into a violent super mutant behemoth, forcing Rahmani and Shin to kill him.

After, Shin erupts at Rahmani, scolding her that something like this was just what the elders wanted to prevent: People trying to play God with science. Though Rahmani agrees with him on that, when they confront Farha, Jain and Nellie, they plead for mercy and ask that their lives be spared, considering that their research is invaluable to the wasteland with the loss of schools and universities because of the Great War and the decay that followed. Though Rahmani wants to spare them because of how valuable human life is nowadays, Shin is adamant that they be slain after seeing firsthand just how dangerous their knowledge is should it fall into the wrong hands if they are allowed to live.

In the end, the conflict over Blackburn's associates results in Rahmani and Shin parting ways, unable to reach an agreement, with one either being killed or allowed to return to Maxson, while the other takes command of the Brotherhood to lead them on their new duty to Appalachia.

Locations

 * Fort Atlas
 * Makeshift vault
 * Two unnamed outposts on the road around Fort Atlas
 * One unnamed outpost on Route 88 southwest of the Wayward

Members
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Paladins

 * Paladin Leila Rahmani3

Knights

 * Knight Alan Connors
 * Knight Daniel Shin3
 * Knight Matthew Thornberry1
 * Vault Dweller (Knight-Errant)2

Scribes

 * Scribe Hailey Takano1
 * Scribe Odessa Valdez

Initiates

 * Doctor Solomon Hardy
 * Initiate Erika Hewsen
 * Initiate Felton Reed
 * Initiate Luis Ramirez
 * Initiate Norland
 * Initiate Pappas
 * Initiate Russell Dorsey
 * Initiate Vernon Dodge2

Hopefuls

 * Colin Putnam2
 * Marty Putnam2

Robots

 * Recruiter
 * Construction Protectrons
 * Protectrons

Variants
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 * Brotherhood hopeful
 * Brotherhood initiate
 * Brotherhood rifleman
 * Brotherhood scout
 * Brotherhood technician
 * 1Formerly
 * 2Optional
 * 3Formerly, optional

Appearances
The Brotherhood First Expeditionary Force appears only They were first mentioned in One Wasteland For All, introduced in Steel Dawn, and expanded upon in Steel Reign.