Today in the CBO
The View from the BMU
by Nat Wright-Kawolski
26 July 2298 – Malden
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 nineteenth trip around the BMU, we will go to another large town center marked for a future CBO team once the town is full-go, Malden.
Malden, A Geographical Study
According to a terminal, "Malden is a hilly woodland area north of the Mystic River, tracing its roots back to before the American Revolutionary War. The pre-War township is bordered by an elevated freeway to the east and west and the river to the south, surrounded by industrial landscape.
"The Mystic River flows approximately parallel to the lower portions of the Charles River. Encompassing 76 mi2 (200 km2) of watershed, the river flows from Mystic Lake near Covenant and travels past the Boston-area communities of East Boston, Charlestown, Malden, Medford, and Arlington.
"From Mystic Lake, the waterway is held by a dam near a military checkpoint above the west shore. After passing Wattz Consumer Electronics and Poseiden Energy Turbine #18-F, the river runs underneath the Tucker Memorial bridge. Continuing eastbound under two unnamed bridges past the BADTFL regional office, the Irish Pride Industries shipyard, the waterway is joined by the Malden River from the north before both emptying into the Boston Harbor near the USS Constitution.
"The river joins the Charles River to form inner Boston Harbor. The north central commonwealth area is border by the Mystic River to the south and elevated freeway to the east and west."
The township as it is now, has a giant sinkhole, called the Old Gullet Sinkhole, which has eaten up a large northern portion of the town. Still there is a lot of town left being built up and upon every day. According to a terminal entry, "The Old Gullet sinkhole is a giant crater-like hole that formed in Malden when a former neighborhood was swallowed by a sinkhole that formed sometime after the Great War. The Old Gullet sinkhole destroyed most of Malden located north of Malden Middle School and west of Greentop Nursery."
The major parts of the town and why it will be a future urban center are Medford Memorial Hospital, one of two major hospitals north of the Charles; Slocum's Joe Corporate HQ; Med-Tek Research; and Vault 75. While the Vault currently serves as housing for some residents, there is talks of turning it into the School of Malden. The vault is located in the basement of Malden Middle School.
Medford Memorial Hospital: Terminal Reports
Much of the hospital has been prepared, and there are several operable sections of the hospital, so not all information below is updated in the terminals at Boston Public Library.
"A pre-War health care institution, located in the center of Malden.
"Entering the hospital places one inside the main lobby, which is a fairly large, third-story room. . . . The lobby has many doors leading to various parts of the hospital:
"First floor
This doorway leads to a hall with one room on the right, then one on the left and a stairway leading up at the end. The room on the right contains a bed, a sink, and a couple of containers. The room on the left which is over the counter through the doorway, then the first room on the left, contains an advanced floor safe next to a desk in the actual floor with an advanced terminal. The stairs lead up to the 3rd floor west hallway. Both the north and east doorways lead to the same room.
"Second floor
To the west are two doorways. One . . . leads to a room with a broken terminal, the 2nd doorway leads to a hallway with a maintenance room to the right and a generator room to the left. A fusion core can be recovered from one of the generators and a mattress lays between two generators.
The east doorway opens into a room with several columns and a broken elevator. Continuing east leads to a nurses' station and a set of restrooms. Back at the nurses' station, the path creates a circle with an operating room in the center and multiple hospital bedrooms surrounding it. The operating room roof has collapsed, so the floor above is visible. As the circle continues, there will be another nurses' station and a staircase leading to the 3rd floor. Eventually, the path will lead back to the room with the columns and broken elevator and then the lobby.
"Third floor
To the west of the entrance is a doorway leading to another hallway. The stairs down lead to the 1st floor west hallway. To the east is a doorway beyond a collapsed floor, which leads to a hallway that has a room to the east and ends past the broken elevator with a staircase down to the second floor east hallway. The east room leads to a mag-locked caged area and the . . . terminal that opens the mag-lock.
"To the north is the . . . door to the Medford operating theater, requiring the Medford Operating Theater key. . . . The doorway leads to a small reception area with a desk and terminal that can be used to change the lighting and music in the theater or open the . . . door into the theater itself. Alternatively, one can use a staircase to the east to enter the viewing portion of the operating theater. This consists of a few rooms surrounding the theater, one of which has a staircase down into the surgical room."
Slocum's Joe Corporate HQ: Terminal Reports
"Before the Great War, the building was the headquarters for Slocum's Joe in Boston, a large coffee and donuts company. . . . Slocum's Joe was a pre-War coffee and donut company based in Malden. The company ran numerous coffee shops around the eastern United States and had a special of a large coffee and jelly donut for 30 dollars.
"A staple of pre-War Bostonian and Appalachian fast foods, Slocum's focused on two things: Joe (coffee) and doughnuts. While their food was noted by some to exceed the daily recommended amount of carbohydrates and fat, Slocum's always tried to stay one step ahead of the competition, such as by trying to solve the problem of keeping coffee hot and doughnuts fresh.
Their answer was Slocum's Buzzbites, a delicious doughnut filled with hot coffee and chemically preserved to stay hot, which had a 90% chance of inflicting 3rd-degree burns on consumers. This lead to it being deemed too dangerous for distribution by authorities. The actual coffee was noted to be "stale, acidic rubbish," priced at 28 dollars."
Med-Tek Research: Terminal Reports
"Med-Tek Research is the remains of Med-Tek Laboratories' medical research facility in the Commonwealth, still accessible in 2287.
"Owned by Med-Tek Laboratories, this private research laboratory was primarily focused on infectious diseases. One pharmaceutical in particular created by Med-Tek was an experiential treatment known as PREVENT, a treatment for an unknown disease. The facility's trials in developing PREVENT were less than ethical; an immense prison system in the facilities sub-levels housed dozens of test subjects who had been bought from an undisclosed source.
"The director of this facility got an advanced warning of the incoming nuclear attack. With the alert, the director placed the facility into lockdown to prevent contagions from spreading. The lockdown also authorized lethal force for those trying to escape, trapping all the researchers and test subjects inside. For the executives, however, they enacted evacuation procedures, escaping the carnage they built. The only known person to successfully escape the facility was Wayne Tournquist who hacked into the director's terminal to forward messages to him. Upon discovering what was about to happen, he fled the facility to gather his family and ride out the storm.
"In the two centuries that followed, the property remained locked down and infested with a horde of feral ghouls. However, rumors began to spread of the miraculous cures left inside. One rumor was about a cure for a virus that affected only teenagers and children, and produced blue boils on those afflicted."
Vault 75: Terminal Reports
"Located underneath Malden Middle School, this vault was presented to the public as a safe place for children in the school to take cover in the event of a nuclear war. When the bombs eventually fell in 2077, every designated family with a student attending the school, along with the teachers, made it to the vault in time. Upon entering, the children were separated from their families and escorted to the atrium, while the adults were executed by security staff, under the guise they were receiving "orientation." This act of murder coincided with the purpose of the vault, which was to enhance the gene pool of its selected residents to create stronger and more intelligent subjects. The surviving children were harshly tested mentally and physically - bordering on torture, and without regard for the survival of weaker individuals - as part of the experiment.
"They were raised learning about the horrors of 'Uptopland,' a nickname for the wasteland, and were told that they would be strong enough to venture out into the wastes and help the suffering people upon graduation. If they were intelligent and physically well built, they were either 'harvested' for their good genes when they turned eighteen, or those displaying good intelligence and obedience were recruited to the vault's science team after graduation. The others who were deemed insufficient to the vault's standards were killed upon reaching the age of eighteen after a ceremony 'celebrating' their graduation. However, details found in the various terminals suggest that even those who were 'graduated' were killed after harvesting. The mission of Vault 75, above all, was the refinement of human genetics.
"At some point, the vault was opened and emptied. Some internal log entries suggest there was a rebellion among the junior test subjects, aided by a 'graduate' scientist. This is backed by the way the bodies are placed in the Vault, indicating a quick and merciless breakout. Whatever the case, in 2287 there are no residents remaining, and the vault is serving as a hidden Gunners stronghold."