The Responders were a group of emergency personnel, consisting of police, firefighters, and EMS workers, like doctors and paramedics, who worked with and helped the survivors of Appalachia in the years following the Great War/World War III in the Online RPG Fallout 76. They are the first faction that the Vault 76 Residents can join as they are first encountered in Flatwoods, a short trip from Vault 76 to the south/southwest upon leaving the Vault and following in the Vault 76 Overseer's footsteps with learning of her whereabouts and journey to secure the Appalachian nuclear I.C.B.M. silos.
In the initial years following the Great War, the Responders helped the survivors with rebuilding, setting up their main base of operations at the West Virginia capital of Charleston. During this time, they had their first encounters with the Scorched Plague and Scorchbeasts. Realizing the severity of the situation, a former Brotherhood member who joined the Responders, Hank Madigan, discovered that Ultracite that had been recently mined up could be used against the Scorched as ammunition loaded with depleted Ultracite could cause some heavy damage against Scorched. To that end, the elite Firebreathers were created to serve as the Responders' anti-Scorched forces. At the same time, the Responders were working on a vaccine against the Scorched Plague at AVR Medical Center in Charleston.
However, in the year 2082, there was a Raider attack on Christmas Eve, led by the second-in-command of the Raiders, Rosalyn Jeffries, shortly after the Responders had turned the stranded survivors at the Top of the World and Pleasant Valley Ski Resort away when they had asked for help and were rebuked, resulting in the Raiders being born when David Thorpe took command of the survivors. While several Raiders and Responders were killed or critically injured, most of the Raiders fled back north to Top of the World, but Rosalyn was captured. Despite brutal interrogation by Responder founder Melody Larkin to get her to spill the beans behind the attack, Rosalyn snidely refused to cooperate and taunted Larkin into letting her go back to Pleasant Valley with an armload of Christmas gifts for her fellow Raiders. However, she made the mistake of mentioning the leader of the Cutthroat Raiders and overall Raider warlord, David Thorpe, to Larkin when she offered them the compromise. Realizing they had a valuable ace in their pocket by having captured Rosalyn, Thorpe's girlfriend, Larkin figured they could use her as a bargaining chip to get Thorpe to back off and leave the Responders alone if they offered to return her to the Raiders in return for a peace treaty between them, or lure Thorpe down from Top of the World to finally bring him to justice and cut the head off of the snake by capturing the Cutthroats and overall Raider kingpin. Rosalyn panicked at the thought of being used as bait against Thorpe and warned Larkin she would be sorry for it, but Larkin refused to listen and had her locked up in the Charleston Capitol Building jail. Unfortunately for the Responders, and Larkin, Rosalyn had been right about Thorpe seeking vengeance for her, but not being that gullible in falling into Larkin's trap to do it. Charleston was devastated by what was dubbed the Christmas Flood a day later on Christmas Day as Thorpe, after learning of the capture of Rosalyn, thinking the Responders had killed her as a way to get his Raiders to leave them alone, used mini nukes he had stolen from the Brotherhood of Steel via the Blackwater Bandits sub-branch of the Raiders to destroy the Summersville Dam and flood the capital in a violent fury of revenge, destroying most of the Responders' supplies, homes, and drowning many of their friends and families, forcing them to relocate to Morgantown Airport to rebuild. Unknown to Thorpe, he had drowned Rosalyn in the process as, trapped in her jail cell, she couldn't escape when the flood waters submerged the Capitol Building.
However, thanks to the relocating, and being in contact with the Brotherhood and the Free States, the Responders began recovering rather quickly, even moving into Flatwoods to use as a base for food and security, with occasionally sending an envoy up to Vault 76 to see if it had opened yet so the Responders could get the help of the Vault 76 Residents and Overseer with their operations. In 2086, a joint task force of the Responders and Brotherhood were able to defeat the Super Mutants in Huntersville, and they even were able to begin squashing Raider activity as well, at least those not already dealt with by the Order of Mysteries, and with Grafton Dam under Brotherhood control, supplies could easily be transported between Morgantown with the Responders, and Harpers Ferry with the Free States.
However, unknown to any of them, the remnants of the Enclave, led by Secretary of Agriculture and self-voted U.S. President Thomas Eckhart, who wanted to see Communism destroyed for good, unleashed everything he could on Appalachia in the hopes of lowering DEFCON to 1, granting him access to the Appalachian Automated Launch System and the nukes within to finish off the People's Republic of China. With the release of the Scorchbeasts, the alliance between the Responders and Brotherhood fell apart as the Brotherhood demanded more and more supplies to deal with the increasing threat of the Scorchbeasts. When the Brotherhood fell in 2095/2096, and Raiders fleeing the Savage Divide overran Responder outposts in Flatwoods and other areas in the Forest, the Responders ran out of time to counter the threat. Hank Madigan tried to reach the Free States to get their help on the Scorched Detection System, but was captured and killed by Raiders, his corpse left caged in the Top of the World, overseen by Rose, Dr. Hudson failed to complete the vaccine to aid the Firebreathers at AVR Medical Center, and after a desperate, but futile, last stand at Morgantown Airport, the Responders were wiped out.
By 2102, as Vault 76 opened on Reclamation Day, the residents of the Vault emerged and under the Vault 76 Overseer's encouragement, finished what the Responders started with the vaccine. A year later, in 2103, as people moved back to Appalachia, the Responders were revived as two young girls, Heather Ellis and Tiffany Brantley, decided to become Responders themselves, with Heather staying in Flatwoods to help out anyone passing through with her dog Chloe and become a Responder paramedic, while Tiffany joined the Firebreathers, staying at the Charleston Fire Department, though still in the process of completing her Firebreather training. Come the year 2104, shortly after the residents of Vault 76 helped out the Brotherhood of Steel First Expeditionary Force with getting them set on their future duty to Appalachia, more Responders began coming back into Appalachia, using the Whitespring Resort as their new base of operations due to its refurbished condition thanks to the resort's automated staff maintaining it after the humans guests and workers left some time after the Great War. Once settled into the Whitespring, it allowed them to travel beyond Appalachia's borders with a repaired Vertibird to help others in need, such as in The Pitt, AKA the ruins of what was once Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The residents of Vault 76 decide to help the Responders as well since it means they would be able to further help those in need in the ravaged Wasteland that was once the United States of America following the nuclear apocalypse of the Great War.
Members
- Maria Chavez (deceased)
- Melody Larkin (mentioned)
- Sanjay Kumar (mentioned)
- Jeff Nakamura (mentioned)
- Willie Mae (deceased)
- Buzz Yates (deceased)
- Dasa Ben-Ami (deceased)
- Sofie Yates (deceased)
- Reverend Delbert Winters (deceased)
- Scott Shepherd (deceased)
- Kesha McDermott (deceased)
- Colonel (deceased)
- Amy Kerry (deceased)
- Caleb Widmer (deceased)
- Major Darion Jones (deceased)
- Miguel Caldera (deceased)
- Paul (deceased)
- Responder Rocky (deceased)
- Various unnamed Responders (deceased)
- Mr. Fluffy (Reprogramed Protectron)
- Responders Vendor (Protectron Merchant)
- Steelheart (Reprogramed Protectron)
- Vendor bot Bob (Protectron Merchant)
- Vendor bot Chad (Protectron Merchant)
- Vendor Bot Greg (Protectron Merchant)
- Vendor Bot Mack (Protectron Merchant)
- Vendor Bot Responders (Protectron Merchants)
- Fire Breathers
- Sergeant Allemane (deceased)
- Andrew Rhodes (deceased)
- Sergeant Cominsky (deceased)
- Garret (deceased)
- Hank Madigan (deceased)
- Sergeant Holstein (deceased)
- Maxine Ballard (deceased)
- Rita Wilcox (deceased)
- Sylvester Tate (deceased)
- Timothy Wolfe (deceased)
- Bernie (Protectron Instructor)
- Various unnamed Fire Breathers (deceased)
- Revived Responders
- Heather Ellis
- Chloe
- Tiffany Brantley (Fire Breathers)
Gallery
