Penelope Hornwright

Penelope Hornwright is a NPC in the online RPG Fallout 76. The only surviving member of the Hornwright family, turned into a ghoul by radiation, but still maintaining her human mind and memories, she served as the de facto CEO of Hornwright Inudstrial, one of the two major mining companies in Appalachia before the Great War/World War III.
==Biography==
Born in March of the year 2048, Penelope attended Vault-Tec University in Morgantown and graduated in 2070 with a double major in Business Administration and Geological Science. In 2068/2069, she worked with both her family's company and Atomic Mining Services (AMS) to establish friendly relations and maybe a partnership between the two companies. However, under her family's influence, Penelope began focusing on fully automating mining and rendering human workers obsolete, to the point that, in the early parts of 2077, she sent automated strikebreakers to break up the human miner protests, and ordered the National Guard to defend the giant Rockhound excavator on the summit of Mount Blair 24/7. Things only got worse for HWI as the air purifiers were modified by Penelope to extract minerals from the very air, turning an already hellish landscape in the Ash Heap into an almost toxic environment that no one could set foot in without proper protection to avoid lung disease.
Penelope's mother Evelyn died of cancer in 2076, and her father was losing his sanity as he succumbed to paranoia regarding the Motherlode. In a bid to bring peace between HWI and its rival in Garrahan Mining Company, Penelope planned to marry Bryce Garrahan, but never got to tell her father before the Great War/World War III took place.
In the years that followed, Penelope gave birth to a daughter between 2083 and 2084, but then had to make a sacrifice as she repaired a damaged Vault door to allow her family and the residents within to be safe from the radioactive fallout outside, but she herself fell victim to the radiation and became a ghoul, but still maintained her human mind. Knowing that she could no longer go near large civilizations without being fired on for being a ghoul, feral or not, she almost succeeded getting with a group passing through Charlotte by using a balaclava to disguise her face, but she was soon found out and chased off.
By the year 2103, Penelope returned to her family's mansion in the Ash Heap, but was being pursued by the Motherlode itself, having recognized her HWI credentials and was trying to reunite with her due to failsafe protocols it had. Upon meeting the Vault 76 Residents when they also arrive with the Motherlode, and agreeing to transfer the Motherlode's command to herself after telling the Motherlode that Penelope's father, Daniel, was dead, she learns of how they want to use the Motherlode to break into Vault 79, holding the United States' gold reserve from Fort Knox. Agreeing to help, and moving from her family's mansion to the New Appalachia Settlers' home base of Foundation, Penelope helped fix up the Motherlode, and helped to locate a secret Chinese base beneath the Whitespring where Jen, a member of the Settlers, reunites with her mother, Mochou, to acquire the Chinese stealth suit to get past some of Vault 79's defenses.
When it comes time to raid Vault 79 when the Vault 76 residents choose to hit it with the Settlers instead of the Raiders, Penelope goes to Hornwright Industrial HQ along with Motherlode to make some final adjustments only to learn too late that Meg had sent a group of Raiders to sabotage the Settlers' heist after learning that some of the Vault 76 residents had cast their lot with Foundation instead of Crater for the Vault 79 heist. The raiders proceed to damage Motherlode with furniture around them, while the group's leader, Hijack, holds Penny at gunpoint and forces her to contact the Settlers with a request for the Vault 76 dweller to come alone or he will execute her. The Vault 76 dweller arrives at Hornwright HQ and either kills or tells off Hijack and the raiders accompanying him, then the dweller and Penny repair Motherlode and return to the basement of Freddy Fear's House of Scares to continue the heist as planned. Penelope later joins them to monitor the Motherlode as it burrows towards the vault. However, despite its efforts, the Motherlode ends up overloading its systems and destroying itself, but manages to breach the vault to allow Jen, Penelope, the Vault 76 residents, and Sergeant Radcliff in to fight or override the remaining defenses to reach the U.S. Secret Service detachment still alive, rescue them, and recover the gold. With their mission complete, Penelope returns to Foundation to continue helping the Settlers with rebuilding Appalachia.
==Gallery==
FO76WL Penelope Hornwright.png|Alternate view
==Navigation==
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