The Brotherhood of Steel Protectorate

The Brotherhood of Steel Protectorate is the nation that rose up from the ashes of the NCR. After the nukes and the NCR's collapse, the Brotherhood came down from the south to salvage all the technology the NCR once held. In 2292 during the events of IASITM2: EB, Sarah Lyons-Santangelo and her wife Veronica Lyons-Santangelo re-establish Sarah's rightful leadership over the Brotherhood as an Elder, uniting the West Coast Brotherhood under the Midwest Brotherhood's progressive leadership. The Protectorate is established and becomes a quasi-military quasi-corporate entity governing the region, ushering into existence a thriving tech sector and maintaining prosperous stability.

## Overview (up to 2307)

To the west, the nuke-ravaged former NCR lands come under Brotherhood of Steel control from the north, corrupted by the leadership of ELDER MAXSON, who retreated west after a disastrous defeat in the east coast at the Commonwealth. In 2292, at the eve of a pointless Brotherhood war of expansion against New Vegas, SARAH LYONS-SANTANGELO and her wife VERONICA LYONS-SANTANGELO arrive in California after being dispatched by the independent Midwest Brotherhood of Steel chapter, of which they joined after their own exiles from the other Brotherhood chapters, in order to assess the condition of the weakened and misguided West Coast Chapter, seeing their disastrous defeat in the Commonwealth and subsequent warmongering as proof their leadership is dangerously irresponsible. With the aid of New Deseret’s JESSICA GRAHAM (née LEXINGTON), her cousin ARTHUR YOUNG (formerly VULPES INCULTA), JULES MCALLISTER, and New Vegas’s top lawmen, VINCENTIUS OF PHOENIX and LAFAYETTE JONES, SARAH and VERONICA, the small squadron they came with, and their newfound allies, they all infiltrate Brotherhood territory and reveal corruption and conspiracy amongst the Brotherhood leadership, deposing ELDER MAXSON and his supporters and installing SARAH and VERONICA as the rightful leaders of the Brotherhood, uniting the west coast with the midwest chapter.

With this new leadership, they reform the West Coast Brotherhood after the Midwest's image and establish the Brotherhood of Steel Protectorate, becoming instead a military government that enforces justice and rule of law, and promotes the responsible development and use of technology, continuing to locate and hoard it, but also putting their resources to researching, improving, and manufacturing it. For the first time in hundreds of years, new computers, auto-docs, and pip-boys are being manufactured, and a booming tech and medical sector emerges with all the Brotherhood’s hoarded tech and knowledge being put to good use. Civil engineering is also researched, trying to find the most efficient and technologically advanced ways to provide basic services.

The basic structure of producing this research and manufacturing comes from companies that are formed by starting off as joint civilian/Brotherhood research projects which recruit private citizens, and then eventually with brotherhood resources, apply the research to produce a product. 85% of all profit is returned to the central Brotherhood command to be re-invested in other ventures that aren’t profitable yet, as well as funding the military and public benefit infrastructure projects, the remaining 15% being motivational bonus-wages, while market competition amongst themselves, New Vegas, and New Deseret helps push for innovation and control prices. Anyone who joins the Brotherhood can get free education in return for a period of mandatory service in the military and Brotherhood companies, but once the economy picks up and the tech sector expands, tuition-based and highly-specialized private schools also emerge independently. Brotherhood law is harsh but fair, and generally the populace under them is comfortable and has access to opportunities for advancement.