Broken Hills

Broken Hills is a town in North California, inhabited by humans, super mutants and ghouls, living together in relative harmony (or so it seems).

History
Shortly after the Master's defeat, super mutant Marcus wandered aimlessly until he encountered Jacob, a Brotherhood of Steel paladin in a Power Armor who had pledged himself to the extermination of all mutants. Marcus and Jacob fought for a day or two, but they soon realized the futility of their battle and became friends (though Marcus always thought that Jacob would have been improved by a dip in the FEV vats, while Jacob disagreed, which was always a bone of contention between the two). As they wandered through the wastes, they attracted a following of other refugees from the war, who believed that Marcus's strength and Jacob's power armor gave them the closest thing available to safety. Eventually, Marcus and Jacob lead the refugees to settling in Broken Hills to exploit the uranium mine there.

Overview
Broken Hills uranium mine is worked on by the towns super mutant population. The radiation in the mine has minimal effect on them and their great strength aids in the physically taxing labor. The mine however does require an air purifier as toxic gas build up makes the mine inoperable less it is regularly filtered. The towns life blood comes from the uranium mine. Broken Hills has its own operational refinery operated by ghouls. If you can purchase uranium ore from a caravan the refinery will produce refined uranium for you. The town is powered by a small reactor that runs off of uranium slugs. This produces ample power for the Broken Hills community. The uranium trade runs to the NCR and Vault City as well as trafficing Brahmin Herds across the wastes. The uranium trade is so important to so many towns existence that Vault City will check their unabiding bigotry for outsiders and mutants and trade valuable medical supplies and money for uranium ore. Ever since the mines air purifier broke down uranium production has halted leading to an economic crisis in Broken Hills.

Conflict
With the vast demographics and races occupying Broken Hills, a rift between the super mutants, ghouls and select humans groups has grown. This has culminated in a conspiracy to rid Broken Hills of it's mutated brethren through a conspiracy led by human purist and store owner Joseph. The conspiracy has resulted in the arrest and incarceration of several of Josephs supporters as well as the murder of several civilians dumped deep in the towns caves and sewers to attempt at destabilizing Broken Hills and starting conflict. Joseph also sabotaged the mines air purifier temporarily halting mine operation. he ultimately hoped to detonate the purifier and bring the whole mine down on all super mutants working inside. In opposition to Joseph are the mines foreman and the super mutant Francis.

Behind the scenes
Broken Hills is likely named for Broken Hill, a town in Australia known for it's silver, lead and zinc mining. This would have to be a reference to Mad Max, as The Road Warrior (known as Mad Max 2 in Australia) was shot on location near Broken Hill.

Appearances in games
Broken Hills appears only in Fallout 2.