Safe Arbor

Safe Arbor is a settlement in the Detroit Metro Wasteland. Built in the city of Ann Arbor which survived the bombing intact, it is the largest human settlement in the area. It is also one of the oldest, having survived since the Great War itself. By 2285 it was an independent city state, ruling over the surround territory. Its walls and large military kept it mostly safe, but in the preceding years it had lost much of its influence. At its height, Safe Arbor controlled vast areas in the outskirts of Detroit proper, but it has been pushed out by the Dominion, the Taylor Raiders and the Tribal Confederation. With a population inside the city of over nine thousand individuals, and several thousands outside in hamlets and farms under its protection, Safe Arbor is still larger then any other settlement but has been undergoing a decline, with many of its citizens migrating elsewhere to find greater opportunity following recent downturns.

## **History**

Ann Arbor was fortunate during the Great War. No Chinese warheads struck the city despite the valuable university and industrial targets located within it. It is unknown why the city was spared, some theorize that a large number of students and faculty at the University of Michigan were infact communist sympathizers or agents and the Chinese did not want to destroy a potential fifth column. Others believe that the missiles coming for the city were engaged by the Detroit laser defense arrays, or was meant to be mopped up by Chinese bombers. Regardless, the city survived. Panic engulfed it as bombs hit targets in Detroit and at the nearby Airbase. The police and local national guard troops would take to the streets to keep order, an would struggle to keep the looting and violence in check.

The Midwest National Guard would use Ann Arbor as a staging ground, with most of the manpower in the city itself being sent to assist in Detroit. The Ann Arbor police and a battalion of National Guard remained to keep order. Within a week, the troops and police in Detroit began returning. The city had fallen into total chaos and the black rain had exhausted all supplies of radiation medication. The troops had killed a great number of survivors merely fighting their way out. The mission quickly turned from assistance to one of survival, and enforcing the order in the last bastion of civilization. While Ann Arbor was not hit by the nuclear weapons, it would suffer from effects of fallout and the black rains which fell after the bombs. Much of the population would succumb to radiation poisoning or other diseases which spread without and ability to check them, as the town had no power and little medical supplies. As winter dawned, the makeshift authority of national guardsmen, police and surviving airmen would make a drastic decision. The students at the university, a significant portion of the towns population, were at first encouraged, and later forced, to go out into the wastes to return home to their families and communities. Soon, all the junior students, as well as those without useful skills, would be either forced out at gunpoint, or shot for refusing. As harsh as it was, this helped the town survive the winter.

### **Decline**

The root of Safe Arbor's decline in population can be ascribed to two reasons. Firstly, the chaos in the north as the Peninsular Republic invaded southwards. Many of the trading destinations that Safe Arbor formerly did business with were annexed or destroyed. As their alliance with the Red Star Army forbade them from doing trade with the Peninsular Republic, the economy of the town declined. This would be exacerbated by the growing settlement in the West Stretch, attracting migrants with new opportunity. Caravans gradually shifted south, but for the most part chose to stop at Fort Wayne rather then go so far north to Safe Arbor. The second reason would be the influence of the Forsaken, who hated them above all other humans in the wasteland for the betrayal in the wake of the war against Vault 36. Whilst the Forsaken had poor relations with most of the human communities, it was only Safe Arbor which they were openly hostile to until recently. The Forsaken used their influence to box out Safe Arbor, keeping them from being able to fully participate in the scavenging activities within the city itself. The focus of their economy thus became the Caravans which, with the aforementioned issues, meant they had nothing to fall back on.

### **Present Day**

Safe Arbor rules over a pocket of territory outside its walls, including several hamlets and many farms or ranching operations. Its population has declined from its heights and its now home to around nine thousand people within the walls, still the largest community of human beings in Metro Wasteland. Only Radiant City, home to some thirty thousand ghouls, is larger.