Today in the CBO
The View from the BMU
by Nat Wright-Kawolski
2 August 2298 – Mass Pike Interchange and Vault 95
On certain Tuesdays for the 2297 and 2298 seasons, we will feature one of the settlements where teams in the Boston Minor Union play.
In our twentieth trip around the BMU, we will do something a little different, cover two settlements. Why? This is the official announcement that the Mass Pike (Interchange) Robobrains will begin play outside Vault 95 in a unique ballpark in 2299.
Mass Pike Interchange - Where are the people?
Mass Pike Interchange "before the Great War was an interchange between two elevated freeways, one heading north-south and one east-west, located near Lake Cochituate west of Boston. By 2287, Mass Pike Interchange has become inhabited by the Gunners, who have established an outpost on the freeway's ruins.
"Sitting atop the western freeway, it consists of two roads: the freeway and the old highway. The old highway connects Mass Pike Tunnel west to the interchange and leads to the Nuka-World transit center at the west end of the highway. At the bottom and top of the freeway, the Sole Survivor will come across several Gunners. There are two elevators that can be used to reach the upper and lower sections of the freeway. The elevator to the lower freeway is located north of the interchange, while the second is located in the middle of the interchange, guarded by several Gunners."
Mass Pike Interchange - 2288
After the Minutemen and Brotherhood of Steel teamed up to eradicate or rehabilitate Gunners members, the areas west and south of Boston became much safer.
As a thoroughfare for the railine to Nuka World, Mass Pike Interchange became an important portion of the Commonwealth where the independent government deemed a guarded safe zone.
The settlement employs some civilians, but most of the people currently inhabiting Mass Pike Interchange (MPI) are made up of stationed Brotherhood of Steel soldiers. This makes Mass Pike Interchange the least populated settlement in the Boston-area Commonwealth with only 32 permanent citizens. When transportation was more difficult before Corvega's plant provided transport vehicles to the CBO teams and the BMU counterparts, the MPI was a crucial station. Therefore, a small area was fenced off so that BoS soldiers could enjoy baseball when not on active duty. Still, the MPI baseball team usually sees crowds of 100 or fewer people regularly, which is not as good for CBO profits.
Mass Pike Interchange - 2288
The CBO does a complete gate share, keeping all teams on an equal financial tier, so the lack of residents does not affect the Robobrains' parent team, Vault 81, but Nate Howard felt the time was right to relocate now that Vault 95 has built an indoor field, Glowing Sea Indoor Stadium, slated to be fully opened in early 2299.
Back to our subtitle, "Where are the people?" One thing that many notice is that there is no housing at MPI on the ground. In fact, other than the fenced off field and a few guard posts with bunks, people would not know more than about six people lived here at all.
The MPI is one of the few places around the Commonwealth where the entire settlement is off the ground. While the MPI cannot function as it did pre-War, it was once a Gunners outpost now controlled by the BoS. Therefore, the functioning freight lifts are the only way up and down the Pike. All housing, businesses, and activity are above the ground, making it a place generally safe from raiders and creatures of the wastes.
Vault 95 - A whole lotta shakin' going on
Like the MPI, Vault 95, located on the northeast edge of the Glowing Sea, was also once a Gunners outpost. It also has an interesting history in just how evil Vault-Tec was. According to a terminal entry, "Vault-Tec created Vault 95 as a rehabilitation institute for people who suffered from chem addiction. The residents of the vault would continue with the program for five years, after which a planted Vault-Tec agent would then unearth a pre-placed, hidden supply of chems to test the social and psychological reactions of the community.
Vault 95 Entrance
"As reflected in the Vault 95 terminal entries, the rehabilitation program was effective in managing the addiction of its residents, with decisions to maintain the program remaining unanimous throughout the vault's early years. Private logs reveal that the introduction of chems effectively tore apart the family that the residents had created for each other, with some residents caving almost immediately to their urges. This stash may be found as one descends the stairs into the residential area, heading straight to the bathrooms and then looking right. Despite the fate of the vault, the stash still contains moderate quantities of chems and alcohol.
"It is certain that all of the vault's original inhabitants overdosed, were killed during in-fighting or fled well before the Gunners moved in; multiple bodies may be found in and around the stash. In the bedroom slightly to the right of the stash are two bodies splayed out across the furniture. They are surrounded by what appears to be a civilized tea party, complete with mannequin attendees, Psycho, and Jet. In one of the closed stalls in the bathroom to the left of the stash is a skeleton and Psycho. Opposite [a] room . . . a skeleton may be found slumped against the foot of a bed, Psycho at his feet and two Jet on an upturned wastebasket next to him.
Vault 95 Blueprints
"Judging from the otherwise homely and untouched nature of the rooms in that area, it seems probable the residents instantly capitulated to their addictions, shut themselves into their rooms, and resumed their chem abuse. It also appears the Vault-Tec agent did not survive the ensuing violence."
Nate first went to Vault 95 with Irish Cait. They had to clear out the place to help Cait with her own addictions. Then, she used the detox chair there, a contraption that can instantly cure anyone of a chem addiction.
Vault 95 Detox Room - Cait used this chair with success
That leads us back to Vault-Tec. We have not written much about them in recent years, but we at Publick Occurences have considered following a history of corporations/institutions that performed terrible experiments on people, most notably the information found in Vault-Tec facilities. Vault 95 contained a contraption that could instantly cure people of addictions, as in making them not want chems again, ever. Yet, instead of using that contraption on the chem-addicted and alcoholic residents of Vault 95, they instead released overdose levels of the stuff, basically dooming everyone inside to addiction. Evil. Simply evil.
Residents in Vault 95 now have worked on fixing up the place and removing as much Gunner graffiti as possible. The area near the Glowing Sea is still not optimal since the Glowing Sea will not reradiate for many more years. However, the ability to be inside for living and, by next year, baseball is something that helps Vault 95 to be a settlement that continues to grow in population and popularity.