Upper Ohio Federation

The Upper Ohio Federation is a small postwar nation-state located along the upper Ohio River, north in what was once the West Virginia Panhandle and on the west shore of the river in the former state of Ohio, centered around the city of Wheeling, former West Virginia. The UOF has been known for their resilience in the face of enemies from multiple directions, including raiders and trogs from The Pitt, as well as the Scorched from Appalachia. As for 2150, The UOF was highly aligned with the Republic of New Appalachia to the south.
==History==
===Founding and Early History===
The roots of the Upper Ohio Federation begin in the city of Wheeling, West Virginia in the aftermath of the Great War of October 23, 2077. While no nuclear weapons landed on the state of West Virginia, the city of Pittsburgh, some 50 miles away was struck by multiple warheads. During the next few years, tens of thousands of residents of Wheeling and the surrounding cities and towns on the Ohio died of radiation poisoning, while many others turned to violence to survive. Many of the remaining survivors were forced to band together to survive, with the largest groups being located near the Wheeling Airport, under the protection of the remnants of a West Virginia National Guard unit, as well as a groups on the ridge of Grandview Heights near the river, and on Wheeling Island in the middle of the Ohio.
In 2082, the leaders of the three main groups of survivors, a National Guard lieutenant colonel, the former Wheeling chief of police, and the local boss of the Steelworker's Union respectively made an agreement which officially founded the Wheeling Provisional Government, and agreed to aid each other in driving the raiders out of Wheeling. This operation was successful, in large part thanks to the handful of CV-80s and M51 Infantry Fighting Vehicles that remained operational in the National Guard inventory. By the end of the year, the raiders had been cleared from the city, and work had begun on a series of fortifications constructed from timbers and scrap metal guarding the main routes into the city, including Interstate 70 and Highway 88 to the east and the bridges over the Ohio River to the west. These would be completed the next year, and in 2084, Bridgeport and Martin's Ferry, Ohio, on the opposite side of the Ohio River were pacified under the Provisional Government. In 2088, Moundsville, former West Virginia, located to the south, had allied itself with Wheeling, and by 2090, a network of city-states along the Ohio River ranging from Steubenville in the north to Moundsville in the south had joined the alliance, at which point the alliance was formalized into the Upper Ohio Federation.
===The Scorched Plague===
Even before the founding of the UOF, in 2088, the first news of the Scorched plague in Appalachia had reached the UOF from traders from Appalachia to the south. The first direct contact with the infection took place the next year, when a scorchbeast was sighted by Wheeling City Guard stationed flying over the fort constructed near the town of Triadephia just to the east of Wheeling. The creature was engaged by a 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun and several .50 caliber machine guns and minigun mounts shooting down the beast before it could be spread the infection. Following this incident, two subsequent attacks by scorchbeasts and Scorched infected were repulsed in large thanks to the heavy fortifications around Wheeling, support by a handful of pre-war armored vehicles and aircraft. 
After the founding of UOF in 2090, defense against the Scorched became a major priority, with many .50 caliber machine guns, miniguns, and Gatling lasers being modified into improvised anti-aircraft mounts placed on the roofs of buildings, and as many pre-war AA guns and SAMs as possible were refurbished. Several pre-war light planes such as the Cessna Atomic series and Piper Fusion Cub, as well as at least one early 20th century biplane modified with a microfusion engine were refurbished and armed with machine guns and rockets, and joined the six air guard CV-80s in use as improvised fighters for intercepting scorchbeasts. An operational barge on the Ohio River was fitted with a forward turret taken from a non-operation tank, as well as a 40mm AA gun, several mortars and machine guns, and a refurbished automated SAM, and was used as an mobile anti-aircraft and fire support platforms, becoming first of four improvised armored gunboats used by the UOF. While Scorched attacks were initially relatively light compared to Appalachia, in the period from 2098 to 2102, by which point practically all of the human population of Appalachia not held in a Vault was infected or dead, the Scorched began to move outwards. At its worst, in 2101, there were a total of 58 recorded Scorched attacks of varying sizes. Thanks to the heavy firepower, the UOF held out, however, they were quickly running low on ammunition for heavy weapons, particularly SAMs. It is generally believe that, were it not for the efforts of the residents of Vault 76, who, after emerging, used surviving nuclear weapons to destroy the main scorchbeast hive, suppressing the outbreak, Wheeling would have fallen by 2110.
===Rise of New Appalachia===
With the Scorched population suppressed and an vaccine against the plague subsequently developed by the former residents of Vault 76, people began to return to what was known as "Downstate" by UOF residents and "Appalachia" by locals- what was formerly the main body of the state of West Virginia. Among these were a few former residents of the region that fled to the Upper Ohio Federation, with, as well as larger numbers of new immigrants from the former Washington DC area, by then known as Capital Wasteland. In 2103, a few major factions had established themselves in the region, including a faction of settlers intent on rebuilding civilization, centered in Foundation, a fortified town on the summit of Spruce Knob, as well as multiple gangs of raiders. While the raiders rarely attacked the heavily fortified UOF directly, caravans and river boats traveling between the UOF and the new settlements were often targeted. One group of particular nuisance were a group of raiders that took up residence in an old recreational boat dock, "Ohio River Adventures". From this location, they repaired a number of small river boats and attacked traders from the UOF using the river to transport goods. To combat this, two more armored gunboats constructed from pre-war self-propelled barges were constructed. The gunboats effectively combated the river pirates, and on three occasions, were even deployed down the river to shell bases used by the raiders in retaliation for attacks. 
The downfall of the raider gangs would come after former residents of Vault 76 conspired with a former raiders named Beckett to bring down the Blood Eagles, a gang notorious even among other raiders for the brutality. The residents and Beckett succeeded in assassinating the leaders of the gang and throwing them into chaos. At the same time, other Vault 76 residents assisted the settlers at Foundation in retrieving the the gold stored at Vault 79, and the settlement was joined by former US military personnel and Vault Tec scientists. With their expertise, by 2109, settlers managed to clear the southern part of former West Virginia of raiders, Scorched, making extensive use of refurbished military hardware. with the northern part, centered around last major raider outpost, was pacified in 2112. 
In 2109, the vault residents and Foundation settlers founded the Republic of New Appalachia. In the coming decades, the postwar state would grow wealthy from minerals extracted from refurbished mining machinery, most notably Hornwright Industrial's Rockhound excavator and Motherlode autonomous boring machine. The rise of New Appalachia in turn brought increased prosperity to the Upper Ohio Federation, with a steel mill in Wheeling being refurbished and beginning to process iron ore since the first time since the end of the war, though much of the operations of the mill consisted of melting down scrap.
==Government==
The Upper Ohio Federation could be considered an alliance between city states in the early part of its history, evolving into more of a federal state loosely based on the pre-war United States by the mid-2100s. The states retain a great deal of autonomy over local affairs, being able to enact their own laws and have their own local court system provided they do not violate federal laws. The Federal Legislative body is the Federal Council, a unicameral legislature based in the old city hall of Wheeling. The Council is elected initially with a representative for every settlement in the Federation, but later represented by population, with a representative for every 1000 people. The Federal Court, based in the old Ohio County Courthouse in Wheeling is the final authority on all court cases, with nine justices modeled after the pre-war US Supreme Court. Lower criminal courts use a system of trial by jury similar to the pre-war United States. The executive branch is represented by the President of the UOF and their cabinet secretaries and executive departments.
==Geography==
The Upper Ohio Federation controls only a very small area, consisting of most of the former West Virginia Panhandle and adjoining area on the other side of the Ohio River in what was the state of Ohio before the war. The entire region is covered by the Appalachian Plateau, an region of rugged topography that is actually a plateau dissected by numerous rivers and streams, rather than a true mountain range. While elevation rarely reaches over 1500 feet above sea level, the numerous steep-sided valleys and dense forests making traveling overland on anything other than a pre-war road extremely difficult, especially for large groups. This makes the location relatively easily defended against incoming raiders, super mutants, Scorched, or other enemies coming in from The Pitt or Appalachia either by land or on the Ohio River, where the steep banks provide excellent locations for fortifications and gun batteries, allowing the Federation complete control of the stretch of river running through their territory. 
===Member Cities===
*Wheeling 
*Moundsville
*Steubenville
==Military==
The Upper Ohio Federal Guard the primary military force of the UOF, based on the pre-war West Virginia and Ohio National Guard, and by extension, the US Armed Forces. The force is designed primarily for defensive operations, manning a number of forts located along roads an the Ohio River. The Federal Guard is a small unit, as of 2200, the Federal Guard had about 6,000 full-time personnel, however, local police and town guards, as well as citizen militias can be called up in times of emergency, bolstering their strength well into the tens of thousands. The Federal guard consists mostly of infantry equipped with weapons commonly issued to the National Guard prior to the war, including R91 assault rifles and M59 Support Rifles, as well as various handguns, SMGs, carbines, machine guns, rocket launchers, grenades, and limited numbers of energy weapons and guided missiles. Operations pre-war vehicles are relatively rare in the Federal Guard, though they do own about 80 trucks, 14 pre-war APCs, and seven tanks spread throughout the various cities under their control. The artillery branch controls about 50 pieces, mostly light 105mm howitzers, as well as larger numbers of infantry mortars, mostly mounted in batteries placed to fire on enemies approaching by road or river, as well as about 120 autocannons and four pre-war SAMs, though ammunition for the latter was mostly expended by 2100 against Scorchbeasts flying up from Appalachia. The Air Federal Guard possesses six CV-80s, four helicopters, and eight light planes modified to carry guns and light bombs, all based at Wheeling Airport. Finally, the Federal Guard operates 20 small boats and four heavier gunboats constructed from armored barges on the Ohio River.
==Foreign Relations==
===Brotherhood of Steel===
During its existence, the Appalachian Brotherhood of Steel was nominally allied with the UOF, however, like with the Responders, Free States, and other Appalachian factions, the Brotherhood mostly kept to themselves, with only limited cooperation. For the most part, the only direct aid provided by the Brotherhood were occasional radio reports of Scorchbeasts flying northwest towards UOF territory. When the group of Brotherhood troops led by Paladin Owyn Lyons reached Wheeling in 2255, the UOF were only to happy to allow them to pass through their territory after they stated their intention to attack the raiders in the Pitt, which had long been a thorn in their side. 
===The Responders===
The alliance of local city states in downstate West Virginia brokered by the organization of former emergency services known as the Responders was a major trade partner an ally of the UOF prior to their destruction by the Scorched plague in 2098. Some of the survivors of the destruction in Appalachia fled northwest to the UOF.
===Republic of New Appalachia===
The Republic of New Appalachia, a state founded in 2109 by a group of settlers who arrived in West Virginia after the suppression of the Scorched, as well as the survivors in Vault 76 became the main ally of and trade partner of the UOF in subsequent years. With the militaries of the two powers often working together to eliminate raiders and river pirates on the Ohio River. 
===The Pitt===
The settlement built in the ruins of Pittsburgh, commonly known as "The Pitt" has long been considered a lawless wasteland infested with raiders and hostile mutants known as "trogs". Since the 2090s, raiders and river pirates have periodically attacked UOF territory with the intent of seize plunder or kidnapping slaves. These attacks were repulsed by the UOF Guard, and by 2100, raiders in the Pitt had learned to avoid Wheeling and the other large settlement of the UOF, however, raiders remained a menace to more external, less heavily defended settlements of the UOFs.
Category:Post-War Countries
Category:Post-War Factions