The Hub

The Hub is a major trading city in Fallout. It is a large community of traders, barterers, gamblers, and other interesting scum. The Hub is a stopoff point for caravans north to Shady Sands and Junktown and south to the Boneyard. The wide variety of people passing through ensures that there is always something interesting going on. The town, not unlike New Reno in Fallout 2, is divided into districts controlled by powerful groups (only merchants not mafia). Unlike New Reno, however, the town has a neutral police.

History
The Hub was founded in 2093 by a man named Angus, who set up camp around a filthy oasis in the desert, and proceeded to begin trading with other settlements.

In 2096, a man called Harold rose to the level of a caravan boss in the Hub. His caravans suffered occasional attacks in the wastes, but Harold's caravan outfit survived and prospered... until the mutant attacks begin to pick up a few years later. Increasing mutant attacks on Harold's caravans caused Harold to get so pissed, in 2102 he financed an adventuring party to try and find out where these dagnab mutants were coming from. Consulting with a scientist and doctor at the Hub, a man by the name of Grey, the two of them decide to join forces. A few months later, Harold was found by traders and taken back to the Hub. But he wasn't human anymore - he was mutating into a ghoul-like mutant. His former caravan partners and employees, horrified by his condition, abandonned him left him without even two bottlecaps to rub together. However, he soon became the leader of the Hub's small ghoul population.

In 2120 Angus established himself as the governor of the growing Hub. Five years later he managed to stop the Vipers' attempt to raid the Hub. In the winter of the same year, however, he was murdered, which threw the Hub into chaos.

In 2125 the Great Merchant Wars started when a band of merchants seized the water tower in the Hub. They demanded anyone wanting water must pay a toll. The war lasted for 2 years. The Water Merchants sealed up the town, but were outnumbered. A man named Roy Greene (Justin Greene's grandfather) made the peace and negotiated a settlement. The Hub's Central Council was formed, composed of two representatives from each of the Hub caravan companies. A long period of indecisiveness and meetings maintain the status quo in the Hub.

In 2131, the Master began ordering his super mutants to gather human stock from caravans. For many years, the caravan disappearances were blamed on monsters in the desert, and even when the abductions begin to occur on Hub caravans, the deathclaws were blamed.

The Hub Underground was formed by a man called Decker in 2140, who quickly started pulling the strings in the town.

Water Merchants
One of the most vital sections of the Hub, yet home to one of the most unscrupulous commercial entities in the California Wasteland, the Water Merchants section of town was home to the titular Water Merchants, a trading group specializing in the sale of potable water to various settlements in the wasteland. As clean water was a precious commodity, the Water Merchants section of town was the site of great wealth, both in coin and in water, and was therefore well-guarded. Any person wishing to do business with the Water Merchants had to come to this section of the Hub.

The Heights
The Heights was the upper-class residential area of the Hub, and was home to Daren Hightower, a local, and very wealthy, merchant.

That Hightower kept considerable valuables in his mansion was an open secret; any merchant as rich as Hightower certainly had items of value worth taking. Hightower, however, had not made his money through foolish risk-taking, so the Heights was often patrolled by paid mercenary guards. Any visitors without a good reason -- or at least a good story -- for being in the area were promptly ushered out, usually at gunpoint.

Factions
The three merchant groups running the town are the Water Merchants, Crimson Caravan and the Far Go Traders. The Underground is led by Decker. There is also the Thieves' Guild, that is led by Loxley. To the west is the Heights.

=Fate= The Hub was overrun by fleeing mutants after the Vault Dweller destroyed the Master and the vats. Though much of the city was razed it managed to survive and joined the NCR. Representatives in the NCR congress from the Hub call themselves "Governors."

Quotes

 * The Hub was a larger city than both Junktown and Shady Sands combined. You could drop the Vault in there, and you probably would not notice. But the people of the Hub had no life, and it was a desolate place just the same. - Vault Dweller's memoirs

Real world
The Hub's approximate location corresponds to Barstow City, CA. Incidently, Barstow City is also a major regional transportation center. Several highways, including Interstate 15 and Interstate 40, converge on the city, and it is the site of two large rail classification yards, belonging to the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroads.

Hub Хаб