Community:Fanfiction/The Nateon of Massachusetts

The Nateon of Massachusetts is a nation in the northeastern United States, formed by Nate Howard after 2287.

Background
The Nateon of Massachusetts (often just shortened to "The Nateon") was formed by Director General Nate Howard after he took charge of the Institute and rebuilt the Minutemen, using their power to successfully defend the Commonwealth from Brotherhood of Steel invasion in 2287. After this, leveraging his unique commanding abilities and his own personal charisma, he managed to arrange an alliance between the isolationist Institute and the surface by 2290. Now, the Nateon thrives under his immense engineering prowess and steady guiding hand, with the Council providing advice under him. The Nateon also includes two colonies, Nuka-World, which has been revitalized as a direct result of the Institute/Minutemen alliance, and the island of Far Harbor to the north, whose local Harbormen were integrated into the Minutemen by treaty, in exchange for resources and technical know-how easily shipped from the deceptively far mainland.

Government
At the head of the Nateon is, unlike other nations often having Kings or Presidents, a Director General. The Director General holds absolute power, but must be chosen by those under them. So far, the only Director General is Nate Howard, and it's unknown if he ever plans to abdicate.

Underneath the Director General are 3 branches with equal authority:
 * The Council, a group of advisors who provide the Director General with specialized advice and take charge on specific initiatives, inspired by the Pre-War U.S. Cabinet.
 * The Institute's Directorate, which still manages all of the Institute's affairs separately from the surface.
 * The Minutemen, who due to being the only unifying force amongst citizens of the Commonwealth pull double duty as a military organization and a political one, with the leaders of individual settlements all being made Colonels. The Colonels operate mostly independently, but when necessary will convene in the Castle.

The Council are 12 advisors, all closely affiliated with Nate, and each Councilman/woman/bot provides their unique take on critical matters. Each also leads a specific department of federal government, with sweeping powers to oversee their specific domain. In addition, the 2 Colony Governors, of Nuka-World and Far Harbor respectively, have seats on the Council, ensuring their respective colonies have fair representation.
 * Lieutenant General Preston Garvey is the Overseer of Settlement Affairs, with his department charged with resolving affairs involving multiple settlements at the same time, insuring they are all on the same page. He is also the second-in-command of the Minutemen, with the power to take charge should the Director General be occupied. Naturally, he is also the Minutemen's primary representative on the Council.
 * Colonel Hancock is the Overseer of Ghoul Resources, a department dedicated to making sure ghouls get their fair share in the Nateon, and that Feral Ghouls don't trouble it's citizens. Due to also being Mayor of Goodneighbor, he also serves as a representative of Goodneighbor on the Council, and has been given the rank of Colonel in the Minutemen.
 * Nick Valentine is the Overseer of Law Enforcement, with his compassion and immense detective knowledge ensuring all crimes are solved, in a balanced and appropriate manner. He also serves as one of 2 representatives for Diamond City on the Council.
 * Piper Wright is the Overseer of Press Affairs, with her department driven to provide truth, honesty, and fast-breaking stories to the Nateon... even if she has a tendency to be less than diplomatic. She also serves as the 2nd Diamond City representing on the Council.
 * Colonel MacCready is the Overseer of Mercenary Regulation, charged with regulating and organizing all matter of Mercenaries, Bounty Hunters, Hitmen, and Private Investigators, and cracking down on the more dangerous groups that don't fall in line, like the Gunners. He also serves as a secondary representative of Goodneighbor, and in light of his personal leadership background was made a Colonel in the Minutemen.
 * Chief Medical Officer Curie is the Overseer of Healthcare, ensuring that all the residents of the Nateon are healthy and taken care of, whether in the home or on the battlefield. She works closely with Institute's BioScience division, having taken over Dr. Volkhert's position after his passing, and also serves as a representative of Vault 81 on the Council.
 * Cait is the Overseer of Raider Extermination, a department tasked with dealing with the endemic scourge posed by raider gangs inside and outside the Nateon, requisitioning military forces and recruiting their own volunteers to do so.
 * Strong is the Overseer of Super Mutant Resources, a department that tries to assist Super Mutants, offering residence and equal rights to those that are peaceful, and even a cure, should they desire it and be of Institute origin, thanks to Dr. Virgil. But more often than not, they are charged with clearing out hostile groups of Super Mutants, which is the part Strong most enjoys.
 * Director X6-88 is the Overseer of Security, ensuring that government affairs, as well as the Nateon of Massachusetts as a whole, are secure from any possible threat, through a combination of vigilant defence and intensive spying. As a Courser, and Director of the former Synth Retention Bureau, now the Courser Corps, X6-88 often acts as the last remnants of the Institute's rampant paranoia, and will leave no stone unturned in his efforts to secure peace. He is also the Institute's voice on the Council.
 * Major Danse is the Overseer of Training and Discipline, charged with ensuring all the various parties in the Nateon of Massachusetts function as a well oiled machine, and whipping them into shape if they aren't. From organizing the often chaotic Minutemen lines, to holding in check the aggressive forces of the Institute, he has his work cut out for him. He also takes a personal stance in ensuring the Institute's technology is distributed with care, as well as any salvaged Brotherhood and Pre-War technology.
 * Colonel Ada is the Overseer of Robotics, ensuring that all robots, old and new, are treated with respect are are functioning in peak mechanical shape. As she also supervises the "Mechanist's Lair" production facility, she is a Colonel in the Minutemen.
 * Colonel Codsworth is the Overseer of Domestic Affairs, taking care of affairs most would find mundane like Hygiene, Urban Planning, and Agriculture, doing his part to ensure the streets and farms of the Nateon are clean and orderly. He's no Mr. Gutsy, but due to his exemplary service as the leader of the model settlement of Sanctuary following Preston's reassignment to the Castle, he's been promoted to Colonel, and holds nominal, if reluctant, command over a portion of the Minutemen's military forces.

Military
The military forces of the Nateon of Massachusetts are a hodge-podge affair, with multiple branches of various backgrounds all vying for attention and insisting their way of warfare is best. Nate Howard decided to settle the issue by organizing the different groups into different Branches, each with equal rights and responsibilities, and reporting directly to him.
 * The Courser Corps function as the elite Special Operations force of the Nateon, formed from the SRB's resources after the former was rendered redundant by the Howard-Binet Study of 2292. Maintaining the cutting edge technological advantage of the Institute, these Coursers have been repurposed from one-man hunting teams shrugging off the worst the Commonwealth had to offer, to an elite shock trooper force capable of being teleported directly to where they need to be thanks to their integrated connection to the Molecular Relay. Using stealth tactics, advanced weaponry, and their years of experience enhanced by an incredibly rigorous training regime, the Courser Corps are reserved for the worst threats, but always get the job done. They also still maintain their old role of being the Institute's security and police force, and are occasionally requisitioned by the Department of Law Enforcement for dangerous or particularly difficult cases, as they still have their own excellent detective skills.
 * The Minutemen are, as ever, a volunteer militia formed by the law-abiding citizens of the Nateon, primarily concerned with it's defence, but occasionally willing to go on the offense. They form the bulk of the Nateon's forces, and thanks to the Director General's personally constructed assembly lines and factories, maintain an extensive arsenal of guns, energy weapons, and combat armor. They also field some recovered Power Armor sets, mostly scavenged from the Brotherhood, and an Air Force made from salvaged Brotherhood Vertibirds, and maintained by Institute engineers. They also operate and guard the extensive artillery and fortress network across the Commonwealth. The Harbormen of Far Harbor have been integrated into the Minutemen by the Treaty of Echo Lake Lumber Mill, and bring their extensive nautical, extreme radiation, and wildlife survival skills to the group.
 * The Wildlife Repurposing Force is a newcomer to the Commonwealth, having it's roots in the reclamation efforts at Nuka-World. Observing the failed Gatorclaw project, Institute scientists applied knowledge gained from their own experience with gorillas, and advanced wildlife control systems designed by Director General Howard for settlement defence, in order to harness a large variety of otherwise hazardous animals for use as expendable reinforcements. Including such a wide array of creatures as Deathclaws, Radscorpions, Mirelurks. Yao Guai, Bloodbugs, Bloatflies, Stingwings, Gorillas, Wild Dogs, and even Feral Ghouls and Radroaches, this highly adaptable force can take on nearly any threat in any environment, often replacing losses as they march.
 * The Department of Mercenaries, as a part of it's regular duties, is authorized to hire the various mercenaries, bounty hunters, hitmen, and private investigators it regulates and use them as a highly unorthodox, yet effective fighting force. Apart from the caps required to hire them, the force is very low-maintenanc, and often are highly skilled with a deadly arsenal of customized weapons, armor, and tactics, making them a very useful reconnaissance force, or an unpredictable and deadly assault group.
 * The "Mechanical Menaces" are a purely automated assault force made entirely out of robots, including both Pre-War designs enhanced by Isabel Cruz and Director General Howard, and also Gen 1 and 2 synths sent out to the field. There are still humans inside the organization providing a degree of supervision just in case, but the majority of command power lies in trusted robots. Mass produced, heavily armed and armored, and able to traverse nearly any obstacle in the name of progress without any need for rest, the Menaces form the bulk of the offensive forces of the Nateon of Massachusetts, forming a highly dangerous counterpart to the more defensive Minutemen.

Geography
The Nateon of Massachusetts is primarily made of heavily fortified, self-sufficient settlements dotted across Massachusetts and Maine. What follows is a non-exhaustive list of key locations.
 * Vault 88 is a massive underground facility sprawling across the southern Commonwealth area. It serves as the primary federal government center of the Nateon, as it's both large and so well protected even a direct nuclear strike wouldn't destroy it.
 * Boston Airport, located in East Boston, is primarily home to the remains of the Prydwen, the massive Brotherhood airship that was their base for the invasion of the Commonwealth in 2287. A small fortified outpost oversees the repurposing of it's airfields yet again, for the Minutemen's own fleet of Vertibirds. It is also the site of the Institute's attempt to reassemble Liberty Prime, using pre-war technical information from CIT, the incredible Robotics expertise of Dr. Alan Binet and Dr. Isabel Cruz, and what intact parts remain, scavenged from the crash site.
 * The Castle remains the large, fortified base of the Minutemen, and is one of the 3 primary broadcasters in the region alongside the Institute and Diamond City.
 * Spectacle Island is the primary naval base of the Nateon of Massachusetts, with traveling Harbormen and the Institute hard at work pooling their know-how to design a fleet of ships for the Nateon. It is also designed to be a secondary operational hub for the government should Vault 88 fall, as it's large size and isolation make it a well defended island fortress.
 * Bunker Hill is the caravan hub of the Nateon, deep in it's heart at Cambridge. The site of the titanic Second Battle of Bunker Hill, it's residents are a tough group that's fiercely protective of their small settlement. With most caravan work being automated, the majority of residents have either taken oversight positions or joined the Minutemen.
 * The Institute remains the shining jewel of technological development, though it is no longer as isolationist, maintaining a very active role in Nateon affairs, and their technology has been disseminated across the Commonwealth. The Molecular Relay, powered by the seemingly infinite energy of the Phase 3 Reactor, is now a primary means of transportation across the entire Northeast, and inside alongside scientists hard at work, are synths with equal rights following the landmark Howard-Binet Study, and even visitors from the surface coming to trade. Surface dwellers still generally do not live in the Institute, though this is mainly due to space concerns.
 * Diamond City, the "Big Green Jewel" of the Commonwealth, remains Nateon's largest city. After the Institute revealed that McDonough was indeed a synth, he was swiftly booted from office, as both Diamond City and the Institute had had enough of his bigotry and close-mindedness. In an election that surprised everyone, Nick Valentine ended up being elected, however he chose to reinstate the City Council, give them all power over the city, and then stepped down from office. Now more open to the outside, the Diamond City Guard pride themselves on being one of the Minutemen's stronger and more athletic units.
 * General Atomics Galleria, after some careful poking by other robots led by Codsworth and the Greygarden Supervisors, has successfully integrated with the rest of society, and serves as a shopping center once more. No attempts have been made to more directly integrate them other than giving them supplies and collecting profits, as they are still in the delicate phase of realizing the war happened. Asking them to do things outside of their programming is ill-advised.
 * Sanctuary remains a model settlement/fortress, overseen by Codsworth. Sturges, after denying an application to join the Institute, instead now tinkers away here and in the next-door Red Rocket, and helps oversee the northern settlements. In an emergency, ahould the Castle be knocked out, he has the responsibility to go to Outpost Zimonja and use it's radio to take charge.
 * The "Mechanist's Lair" is a fully automated robot construction facility in East Boston, working day and night to make robots and spare parts for the Nateon of Massachusetts. While the Mechanist herself has left for the comfort of the Institute, Ada keeps a watchful eye on the facility, and a small human staff of mostly Institute scientists also lives here.
 * The Slog has grown considerably, and it's primary export is no longer tarberries, but rather steel from next-door Saugus Ironworks, after Nate personally cleared out the Forged while on a mission to rescue a settlers from nearby Finch Farm, which helps provide an elevated watchpoint over the steel mill.

Colonies
The Nateon of Massachusetts includes two colonies, Nuka-World, seperated from the Nateon by a mountain range, and Far Harbor, which is over a hundred miles to the north. However with the Molecular Relay and functioning Vertibirds, they are still highly accessible.

Nuka-World
Nuka-World used to be occupied by 3 particularly deranged Raider gangs, until Director General Howard personally cleared them out. The Disciples were a lost cause, and their remnants continue to be a problem in the region. The Pack is fully eradicated, their predilection for using combat animals turned against them. Only the Operators remain in any capacity in Nuka-World. Following the eradication of their leaders, many of the already more business-minded Operators surrendered and turned to mercenary work instead of raiding. Nuka-World was settled by a joint Minutemen/Institute team, to best harness it's vast space and abundant technology. It has been highly successful, and is now widely regarded as a shining example of what the Nateon has to offer. In order to maintain a balance, the two groups are led by a neutral party, Colony Governor Porter Gage. Gage, formerly the second in command of the Nuka-World Raiders, was spared by Howard and recruited to join the Nateon. Initially purely interested in just saving his neck, he's now come to realize that the Nateon is stronger than any possible threat by raiders or monsters.

Far Harbor
When the Director General came to Far Harbor, it was a vast, untamed wilderness, full of dangerous cultists, giant monsters, and an irradiated fog blanketing the island. It had only 2 small civilizations, the Harbormen, crammed into one tiny dock, and the Acadians, a colony of synths on the top of a mountain. Through his efforts, the Harbormen have expanded their presence drastically, claiming settlements across the island, and benefitting from many of the same technologies used in the Commonwealth. Eventually, they agreed to a treaty allowing them to join the Minutemen, and together with their strength were successful in eradicating the Children of Atom, which was a proven menace, especially in the Commonwealth. Acadia has also grown and prospered, no longer needing to work about the Institute's wrath thanks to the Howard-Binet Study of 2292, a 5-year study that proved, conclusively, objectively, and scientifically that Synths were just as much a sentient being as humans, with their own rights. Now, Acadia grows in number thanks to an large influx of visitors, mainly Institute scientists coming to study the Island, or Acadia itself, and a number of Coursers wishing to hone their survival skills have also made the trip. The number of synths actually planning to stay in Acadia, however, is rather low, since there are now many other places for them to go as well. The Colony Governor of Far Harbor is Old Longfellow, chosen for the fact that, while he may not be the most sober of leaders, he is a tenacious fighter, and he knows virtually anything there is to know about his homeland. He also had nothing better to do.

Outside Relations
Thanks to an abundance of Vertibirds, and an immensely powerful teleportation device, travel to other regions is now more available than it ever was before, with regular trade established with Ronto, Point Lookout, and Appalachia. Excursions into the Pitt are occasionally undertaken, in yet another attempt to rid it of it's particularly violent population. The Capital Wasteland is the scene of full-scale war between forces of the Nateon, and the Brotherhood of Steel, who still hold their ironclad fist over it's residents. Some outlier communities such as the Republic of Dave and Oasis have opened up trade with the Nateon, and Little Lamplight, thanks to some persuasion by their former Mayor MacCready, has been convinced to allow some limited trading to offical representatives of the Nateon. Far-ranging Vertibird flights to the West have been undertaken to try to reach the NCR, rumors of which had been circulating for years in the Commonwealth, but so far have been unsuccessful due to the presence of the Midwestern Brotherhood of Steel, which keeps intercepting or shooting down what manages to dodge the area's unstable weather.