Today in the CBO
Settlements Today
by Nat Wright-Kowalski
7 July 2296 - Oberland Station
Each Tuesday for the upcoming weeks through the playoffs, we will feature one of the settlements, teams, and owners of the Commonwealth Baseball Organization. This is meant to tell you more about life in the Commonwealth, as well as give you more information about the teams and their owners.
In our thirteenth installment of "Settlement Today," I visited the compound with the most commuting settlers, Oberland Station.
Before a guy named Nate came along, Oberland Station was quite simplistic in its build: "Oberland Station has one permanent building, which is a railway check station at the center. The settlement's small size and confined space make it ideal for a vertical settlement. It has a small farm area with a few tato plants, cooking station, and two settlers when it is first discovered.
Oberland is often attacked by raiders and super mutants in early stages."
Oberland Station - 2287. The former train station served as housing with a small farm. The wooded area has made expanding the location difficult.
When Nate came along at first, there were two sisters, Tealeaf and Twilight, who had a problem with super mutants passing through and wreaking havoc on their land. They would hide in a small cave east of the settlement and would often sleep there before they received more protection. Nate Howard helped them by slaughtering the super mutant raid party and then built a few turret stands to keep other super mutants and raiders at bay.
Another part of that protection came from a man named August Jones who started calling himself August Oberland once he moved there. The one-time Minutemen soldier protected the sisters and became the patriarch of the land. He started building walled defenses and a small wood cabin for any other settlers joining the settlement. In time, the settlement became a small compound that kept the bad guys out.
Oberland 2296 - Though there is still not a lot of places to go in expanding this settlement, building up has worked.
Today Oberland Station settlers commute for a lot of their work, including the baseball team named for this settlement. Many of the settlers work in nearby Beantown Brewery, while others cross the river north of Beantown Brewery and Oberland Station to Graygarden, mostly for maintenance and repair work. Also, the Graygarden Park baseball stadium is another employer of Oberland Station residents. There were considerations to build the stadium in the parking lot of Beantown Brewery, but Nate Howard worked out a deal for the Bobrov brothers to expand their supply out east, and Graygarden was also a cap-heavy settlement without the robots there needing the caps for much other than purchasing fuel and supplies.
[I]Beantown Brewery - Just north along the train tracks from Oberland Station. The Bobrov brothers own and operate the facility and most of its employees live at Oberland Station.
Owner - August Oberland
August Oberland seems like one of those nameless settlers of the Commonwealth. However, he has a storied history that helped him make his way to Oberland Station and turn the settlement from nothing to something.
Around the time some Minutemen abandoned their cause and experienced the Quincy Massacre in 2287, the Minutemen soldier known as August Jones was on a diplomatic mission in Nahant trying to help a group of settlers at the Nahant Oceanological Society. Two problems presented itself at the time: lots of mirelurks around and no one capable of hacking the robots running the Society. Eventually, Jones moved the settlers to a wharf house as the best and most-protected area. Once he started to make his way back, he and his group picked up a distress signal on Radio Freedom that the Minutemen were slaughtered in Quincy and that any personnel out there should scatter. August decided to leave his group and make his way west.
After encountering hordes of raiders, mutants, and ghouls throughout the area north of the Charles River, he came across Graygarden in late 2287. One of the robot workers there told him that a man had cleared out the mutants in the area, so August crossed the river and found Oberland Station where Tealeaf and Twilight were having problems fixing a couple of malfunctioning turrets. Though they were wary of August, he offered to help fix them, later asked for a cooked meal, and then never left.
Now he still acts as the mayor of Oberland Station, running the compound as he feels best. There is a Minutemen post at the settlement, as well as basic needs for supplies, food, and medical purposes. If there are any bigger needs, like the need to hospitalize a settler, then they can always make their way south to Vault 81 for more treatment from Dr. Jacob Forsythe and his excellent medical clinic there.
The Farm Run Entirely by Robots
Graygarden 2296 - No people are allowed to run the farms, but there are a few people who run trades, security, and maintenance. Supervisor White is the de facto mayor there, though there is no official local government, thus most of the people choosing to live at Oberland Station. Check out this awesome settlement build here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOOXIecDp6g
According to the intranet, "Staffed by a fleet of Mister Handy robots, and led by the three color-coded supervisors by the name of White, Brown, and Greene, Graygarden is a bountiful greenhouse for the Commonwealth. It was founded before the Great War by Dr. Edward Gray."
The farm here is the main supplier to Oberland Station, grows supplies needed for Beantown Brewery, and supplies settled areas in eastbound Cambridge and westbound Fort Hagen. Because Oberland Station runs the caravans and trading of the crops, the human settlement of Oberland Station keeps most of the profits except for what is needed for maintenance and farming supplies for the robots. August Oberland also handles payrolls for those living in Graygarden.