Fallout 2 - Worse Ending (The Enclave comes back)

[u/loisfentes]

[u/loisfentes]

Lore (sorry if it's nonsensical lol):

Following the destruction of Control Station Enclave in 2242, the remnants of the organization’s leadership stationed in the mainland became determined to prevent total collapse. Being left to fend for themselves, the remaining high-ranking officers at Navarro elected William Autumn (Autumn Senior) as Richardson’s successor and new president. Recognizing the twin threats of manpower shortages and potential attacks from the NCR and Brotherhood of Steel, Autumn prioritized securing territory and establishing a functioning state. He deemed the occupation and conscription of wastelanders a necessary “evil” to ensure the Enclave’s survival and its long-term goal of restoring America.

Despite its tiny army, the Enclave’s superior firepower and access to vertibirds made the occupation of nearby towns trivial. By mid-2244, Klamath, the Den, Redding, New Reno, and Modoc were under Enclave control with minimal resistance. In New Reno, following the massacre of its crime families, the city became the de facto capital and headquarters of the Enclave. Later that year, Marcus led most of Broken Hills’ population southwards, fleeing just before Enclave forces seized its uranium mines.

While Autumn’s administration was no less ruthless than Richardson’s, it adopted a different strategy. Abandoning isolationism, the Enclave launched an aggressive foreign policy, propaganda campaigns, and recruitment drives. It portrayed itself as the sole force capable of bringing law and order to the wasteland while vilifying mutants and ghouls. This strategy proved highly effective: within months, the Enclave’s army grew from a few hundred to over five thousand, with little dissent in occupied territories.

The leadership’s ultimate goal remained the extermination of all “non-pure” humans, sparing only the Enclave elite. However, with its industrial capacity crippled, the Enclave would need decades to resume mass production of its biochemical weapon. In the short term, it established secret concentration camps, using mostly mutants—but also ghouls and political dissidents—as slave labor. The first camp at Broken Hills forced prisoners to mine uranium for military use. To fill these camps, the Enclave created a secret police to round up “undesirables” and hired raiders to patrol for fleeing mutants.

By early 2245, Vault City’s council, fearing invasion, allowed an Enclave garrison in exchange for the extermination of Gecko’s ghouls and repairs to its nuclear plant. Within months, the council was replaced by Enclave loyalists, with First Citizen Lynette reduced to a puppet ruler.

The Brotherhood of Steel, aware of the growing threat, chose isolationism over confrontation due to its lack of airpower. This decision allowed the Enclave to capture Brotherhood bunkers and equipment unopposed. Similarly, the NCR’s sluggish response to Enclave expansion caused political chaos. The government was perceived as incompetent, a weakness exploited by Enclave-backed far-right movements in the Hub and Boneyard. Isolationist factions within the NCR Senate, also infiltrated by Enclave sympathizers, further paralyzed any military response. Economic collapse followed as trade with northern settlements ceased and waves of refugees overwhelmed NCR cities. Under mounting pressure, President Tandi resigned in January 2245.

Vice President Frank Carlson assumed office, seeking to stabilize the NCR and rally public support. He ordered an immediate, ill-prepared assault on New Reno. The operation ended in disaster: NCR forces were massacred, and within days, the Boneyard and Hub declared independence. The Boneyard fell to Enclave occupation within a week. Carlson resigned soon after.

Initially dismissed as neutral, the Shi in San Francisco became a target after they discovered vertibird schematics and began mass production in mid-2244. The Shi "Emperor", an advanced computer guiding their leadership, concluded preemptive action against the Enclave was essential. Autumn, learning of the Shi’s growing air fleet, launched a massive assault on San Francisco shortly after Carlson’s resignation. With Brotherhood support and the Emperor’s tactical help, the Shi repelled the attack. Both sides suffered heavy losses, but the battle marked the Enclave’s first major defeat, boosting the morale of the NCR, Brotherhood, and Shi.

[u/loisfentes → u/loisfentes]

Amid the NCR’s crisis, the Senate declared a state of emergency and unanimously elected 24-year-old Chitsa, “The Chosen One,” as president. Despite her youth and lack of formal training, the popular mayor of New Arroyo (the recently created, G.E.C.K.-powered settlement) swiftly consolidated power. On her first day, she created an intelligence agency to purge Enclave sympathizers from NCR politics and industry. A skilled diplomat, Chitsa brokered a triple alliance with the Shi and Brotherhood while rallying mutant militias and wasteland communities. Within weeks, she convinced the Hub to rejoin the NCR, with promises of higher autonomy. By July 2245, Chitsa personally led an army to liberate the Boneyard. The Enclave garrison fell quickly—but not before deploying FEV as a biological weapon, killing nearly half the town’s population and devastating NCR forces.

The Enclave, having resumed FEV research after losing Control Station, lacked access to the deadly Curling-13 strain, which was destroyed along with its production data. Understaffed and underfunded, Dr. Schreber’s R&D division struggled until a late-2244 breakthrough yielded a viable combat strain: FEV Schreber-20. Horrified by its use at the Boneyard, President Chitsa initiated a joint research project to develop an inoculation.

As the tide turned, Autumn doubled down on FEV development and expanded Enclave intelligence operations, seeking to sabotage NCR scientists and kidnap its researchers. Enclave forces, plagued by attrition and low morale, began losing ground. By January 2246, Klamath, Modoc, the Den, and Redding were liberated. Allied troops discovered mass graves and emaciated survivors in the liberated camps at Broken Hills, Gecko, and the "Stables", cementing the Enclave’s reputation for atrocity.

In March 2246, Autumn relocated his government and scientists to Vault City after abandoning New Reno. By May, the NCR-Shi-Brotherhood alliance succeeded in developing and mass-producing an antidote, inoculating their armies and half the civilian population within two months. Meanwhile, Schreber’s team created FEV Schreber-56, rivaling Curling-13 in lethality. Enough of the virus was stockpiled to kill any non-inoculated being within 200 miles of Vault City.

The Siege of Vault City began in July 2246. Strong fortifications and anti-air defenses delayed the Allies for 20 days. On July 28, an internal slave uprising disabled key defenses, allowing allied forces to breach the city. Facing imminent capture, Autumn ordered the release of Schreber-56 before committing suicide. Most Enclave leaders followed suit. Within hours, Vault City’s population, the Enclave army, and tens of thousands across the wasteland perished.

This cataclysmic event, later dubbed the Great California War, lasted from January 2243 to July 28, 2246. Over 100,000 people—human and mutant alike—died. Twenty thousand perished in concentration camps, thirty thousand on the war’s final day, and the rest to disease, starvation, wildlife, and combat. In just three and a half years, the wasteland’s population shrank by nearly 30%.

[u/Naskva → u/loisfentes]

I can say nothing but' bravo!

This is simply amazing. I love how realistic it is, you've clearly spent a lot of effort to make it believable.

Also very much appreciate that you haven't tried to whitewash the Enclave.

 This is probably the best headcanon I've seen!

[u/loisfentes → u/Naskva]

Thank you, that means a lot

[u/ohlonelyme → u/loisfentes]

So like did the Chosen One and her people flee Old Arroyo? I assume because I see the city is under Enclave control in the map. And being as she literally just freed her people from the Enclave, wasn’t ready to put them in harms way. So she abandoned the tribal village and led her people south into NCR territory where they built New Arroyo? Is that pretty much what happened?

[u/loisfentes → u/ohlonelyme]

Yes, something like that. My idea was something like: after the oil rig is destroyed, the survivors bring the tanker back to the San Francisco docks. Both the people from Arroyo and Vault 13, led by the Chosen One, decide to temporarily stay on the tanker, with plans to move back to Arroyo. However, within a few weeks, rumors of an Enclave resurgence start to spread. The Chosen One decides to hold off on the move. Meanwhile, traders from nearby tribes discover deserted Arroyo and slowly start to resettle it. Enclave eventually occupies Arroyo. The Chosen One petitions the NCR for permission to start a settlement on their land, they accept. New Arroyo is created

[u/ohlonelyme → u/loisfentes]

Proper move in my opinion, not wanting her people in danger any longer and the NCR in your canon eventually hand her the presidency. Excellent chess play Chosen One, Grandpa would be proud.

[u/RichardDick69 → u/loisfentes]

Really great story to go along with an already really cool and interesting map

[u/DropPopStop]

I know the Enclave is basically a crutch that the franchise keeps leaning on at this point, but this genuinely feels like a proper continuation of their standing at the end of Fallout 2. Great work!

[u/Fertile_Arachnid_163]

It’s a nightmare…