Connor Henryson

Self-Appointed Mayor

Husband

Father

Connor Henryson was a prolific Wastelander, formerly a Vault dweller, and founder of the community known as Bastion. A former Vault dweller, until he was exiled for the stability of the vault, Connor became most famous for his "One Man War" against the Wild Dogs raider tribe. The community he founded, Bastion, would go on to serve as exactly that; a Bastion for settlers against raiders and Super Mutants.

## Early Life

Connor was born in Vault 26 in the year 2188. From a young age, he often found himself rebelling against the constraints of the Vault's experiment, which was to test how people would react to long-term isolation with rigid timetables, breaching which being treated as a criminal offence. By the year 2208, Connor's rebellious streak had begun to cause a shift amongst the younger Vault Dwellers, with regular incarceration and public humiliation doing nothing to deter him. Left with no choice, The Overseer exiled Connor from the vault. The Overseer had hoped that experiencing the Wasteland might help show Connor how much better he was within the Vault, which would destroy the younger generations ideas of leaving the Vault. However, Connor never returned and the one scout the Overseer did send to look for him was unable to find any signs that he had died.

## Early Exile

Connor strode away from Vault 26, his trusted Pip-boy on his arm and a loaded 10mm pistol at his side (The only real mercy shown to him by the Overseer being that he would not leave defenceless). While the Overseer had expected him to linger near the Vaults entrance before long, he had underestimated Connor's greatest strength; his adaptibility. For every counter-measure against his efforts to rebel, to be independant, Connor had always found some way to escape any and all attempts at restraining him, at bringing him in line. And that same adaptibility now served Connor well in the Seattle Expanse. He took odd jobs, offering help tending to farms or staving off the various critters that made general Wasteland life a nuisance. Within a year of his exile, Connor had already made something of a name for himself to the east of the ruins of Seattle. It was also around this time he began courting his intended wife, a girl named Bethany. However this romance was doomed.

While working at her fathers farm, in exchange for food, shelter and a modest amount of caps, it was struck by the notorious raider tribe known as the Wild Dogs. Connor fought valiantly, killing at least two of the raiders, but was in turn wounded and left helpless to watch as the raiders burned down the farm and either executed or enslaved its inhabitants. Bethany was one of the more resistant ones, and the Wild Dogs killed her. Connor was left to die and certainly would have had a passing caravan not noticed the smoke from the destroyed farm and saved his life. Despite surviving, Connor held a bitter vengeance within him. He had hidden most of his caps away from the farm and thus saved them from being stolen. Using them, he purchased a good quality rifle from further south, a place called the New California Republic, and plenty of ammunition.

Connor was going to war...

## Against the Wild Dogs

Connor began a hit-and-run campaign against the Wild Dogs, using his adaptibility and the skills he had learned thus far in the wasteland to harrass the large raider tribe. He'd often snipe various Pack Leaders (bosses of smaller gangs within the tribe), sabotage supplies and even set lethal traps. The Wild Dogs attempted to hunt him down, coming close to discovering or even killing him on at least three seperate occasions.

He eventually stumbled upon a Pre-War bunker that contained a cache of preserved military-grade weapons and armour. Connor quickly converted this bunker into his home, resupplying himself. For the next three years, this single bunker would serve as his home, his base of operations and fall-back point in his struggles against the Wild Dogs. And even when this place was discovered, they soon dared not approach it for Connor had activated the bunkers defences which aided him in defending his home on the four occasions the raiders had tried to dislodge him from it. Occasionally, other Wastelanders or militia would join Connor in his fights, but he largely operated alone.

On May 17th, 2218, the Wild Dogs made one last attempt at claiming the bunker. This attack was less about the pre-war hardware contained within and more about simple vengeance. Connor had become a living embodiment of shame for the tribe. Despite robbing him of his intended wife, Connor would meet his actual first wife during this final attack. The Raiders descended upon him, a force numbering at least thrity strong, and he met them with a storm of bullets and fury the likes of which the raiders had not seen in him ever in the five years he had been fighting them for this attack had fallen on the anniversary of the attack that had robbed him of his first love and the sight of the raiders attacking him on THIS day awoke a terrible fury within him.

One by one, the raiders fell. Their nerve broke, even as another twelve raiders from another pack joined the fray. Soon other wastelanders, people Connor had aided in the past five years, came to join the fight and what had started as an attack with one target soon turned into a desperate struggle to survive. Only three of the Wild Dogs escaped, one healthy and another wounded. The third, a woman five years younger than Connor, however did not flee. She instead his and when Connor found her, she pleaded for her life. The enraged former Vault dweller would have killed her then had her pleas not reminded him of Bethany's families pleas for mercy. Conquering the black rage that had very nearly overcome him, Connor instead took the woman into his home. She became his bride within a year, initially only going along due to fearing Connor's wrath but eventually through genuine affection. She had become "tame" in the eyes of her former comrades by this point, them leaving her a simple dog collar as a sign that she had been disowned.

Connor would occasionally continue to fight the Wild Dogs, but the gang had learned to avoid him now. Too many had already died against him, and the thought that he could convince one of their own to give up the raider lifestyle entirely only served to deepen their humiliation. The "War" was over...and Connor had been its victor.

## Foundations of Bastion and later life

Connor would go on to settle down, his fame attracting other wastelanders to his Bunker home. Realising that he now had the chance to establish a true home for himself on the surface, Connor guided the wastelanders in erected proper defences, constructing shacks and even starting farms and pumping fresh water from the ground. He formed, and trained, the towns guard, equiping them with the pre-war hardware contained within the Bunker. Its defences erected, its future secured, Connor christened the new town Bastion for that is what it was; a bastion of safety in the otherwise harsh wastes.

Connor would serve as the, initially, Self-appointed Mayor of the town. He had truly come to love his ex-raider wife deeply and they had two children. By the time of Connor's death in 2263, he had even become a grandfather and had sent the odd scout back to Vault 26, inviting those within to come to Bastion and make a new life for themselves. However, his final attempts to reconnect with his childhood home proved fruitless; news of Connor thriving in the wasteland did indeed make it through the Vaults otherwise impenetrable door, but the resulting civil unrest within the vault triggered an internal civil war that ultimately resulted in the Vaults reactor leaking. Those few that escaped before the Overseer sealed the Vault became comparatively easy prey for the Wild Dogs compared to the last denizen to emerge from the vault. Only one other survivor was rumored to have eluded the Wild Dogs...and they were soon dragged to Vault 59 and found themselves a devout member of the Disciples of Tom.