The Philadelphia Minutemen
The minutemen help where they can, but they're spread out too thin, they can't fight both the Enclave and brotherhood at the same time. I wish them luck though. -KOP Settler
Structure
The Philadelphia Minutemen are based out of The Mall and are commanded by General Von Stueben, who claims to be the active field commander of the Continental Army. He is the commander in chief of the minutemen and regulates the settlements that are under their protection.
The minutemen are a largely voluntary law enforcement force within the wasteland, some of them sustain themselves from donations given to them by the settlements which they protect, others ask a small price for their services. Below the general are his colonels, they work with troops to move supplies and manpower all across the wasteland. The Colonels are in charge of the many companies of minutemen that are scattered across the KOP and wider Keystone Commonwealth, each company is led by a Captain who is supported a small team of lieutenants in charge of regiments of Sergeants and their minutemen squads.
Culture
The minutemen believe in protecting the people of the commonwealth and living up to the original beliefs of the revolutionary minutemen. The minutemen believe that all people have the right to live peaceful and fulfilling lives.
Public Agenda
protecting the people of the KOP, no matter the cost.
Assets
The minutemen are roughly 200 men strong and are often stationed within platoons of about 20 men within a given settlement area, deploying squads of minutemen from a central outpost.
History
On March 16th, 2202, The Mall came under attack. At that time the settlement was only loosely protected by the settlers who lived there, it did not have a standing military or security force, and at that time did not have the caps to pay a mercenary company to defend them. A large force of mutant raiders called The Fiends came up from the Nova Wasteland within the Philly Dark Zone and was ready to overrun the settlement, killing everyone within it. Fortunately, the attack was repelled by a rag-tag group of settlers armed with laser rifles they had found within an old US National Guard armory. These men were led by a young and fierce man named Daniel O'Hara, he took command of the settlement's defenses and rallied the men to repel the fiends.
When the dust settled and the Fiends were driven off, Daniel and the other men banded together and declared the birth of a new kind of force within the wasteland. Taking inspiration from the revolutionary period of the country, they came to call themselves The Philadelphia Minutemen. Over the next three years both the minutemen and The Mall grew in size and strength, with the minutemen protecting them, the settlement was able to branch out, and with this branching out it gave the minutemen more avenues to recruit.
This continued until on May 9th, 2205, a strange portly ghoul showed up to The Mall with ten securitrons trailing behind him. The man introduced himself as Colonel Fredrik Willhelm Von Steuben, the current acting commander of the Continental Army, motioning to the robots behind him. Daniel O'Hara had heard stories from his grandfather about a ghoul who led a robot army against the super mutants that once dwelled within The Mall, but he never thought it was true. The minutemen were star struck at the ghoul, and when Von Steuben spoke, they hung on his every word. He told them that they looked to be good fighters, but they lacked discipline, and without discipline they were nothing more than boys with toy guns. Von Steuben took them 50 men at a time and marched them to the Valley Forge Park Center to train them in the art of military tactics and war. By Christmas of that year Von Steuben had turned the rag tag group of mercenaries and armed militiamen and turned them into a fighting force that would prove to be pivotal within the wasteland.
During those years, the KOP Wasteland was plagued with countless savage and tribal mutant gangs and conclaves. The Fiends held control of the Nova Wasteland south of King of Prussia and even had slave cities as far north as Morgan's Town. During the forming decades of the minutemen's founding, they had their hands full dealing with these countless warring tribes. Their greatest threat came in the form of Prancing Bull and his Red Tomahawk tribesman, a group of native American descendants who went mad during the Great War and developed a warring culture as a result of it.
The Tomahawks raided and pillaged along the 476, raising any settlements they came across, and taking their people as slaves. The Tomahawks proved to be a challenging enemy for the minutemen, as their tactics matched the minutemen's. The first battle of what would later be known as the Tomahawk War, was at Spinner's, a bar made out of the ruins of an old church near Penn. Spinner's was once a refuge for the many caravaneers who would travel along the 476, travel that disrupted by attacks from the Red Tomahawks. The bar was attacked and overrun by a war party of the Tomahawks, two squads of minutemen were dispatched from Penn to retake the bar and dispatch any Indians who resisted. The Battle of Spinner's Bar occurred on October 10th, 2220; it began early in morning as the minutemen caught the Indians off guard as they began to load their rad stags for travel. The battle lasted until that afternoon and resulted in the church being badly damaged and the Indians all killed. This violence sparked the tensions and conflict between the minutemen and the Red Tomahawks, which started a 3-year war.
The Tomahawk War culminated with the Battle of The Woods. The minutemen's leader at the time Jacob (Jake) Higgins caught wind that Prancing Bull's camp was located somewhere within the woodlands north of Penn along the 476. On September 19th, 2223, Higgins and two companies of minutemen ambushed Prancing Bull within the woodlands and what in sewed would be the bloodiest battle in the minutemen's history. Losses were heavy on both sides, but the day was won for the minutemen when Higgins killed Prancing Bull in melee combat, in the fjord of a small creek that ran through the battlefield.
Throughout the next few decades, the minutemen worked tirelessly to rid the wasteland of the mutant raiders and savages that had once plagued it, but the minutemen could only do so much, and the raiders were too numerous and powerful to beat alone. In 2268, four Verti-birds enter into The Forge. The soldiers within the Verti-birds are clad in advanced black power armor and wield highly advanced plasma and laser weapons. A group of these soldiers is dispatched to the Valley Forge Park Center, where they massacre the minutemen recruits who are training there, Von Steuben barely escapes with his life and only three of his original ten securitrons, he manages to only save 10 of the 50 minutemen within the center. A few days after the attack a courier appears at The Mall and The Valley Forge Casino, he tells the leaders there that The Enclave has arrived and will be taking charge of the Forge and that any attempts to go into the Forge would be met with extreme prejudice.
Over the next ten years, the Enclave established more and more forts and bases across the southern KOP and made several attempts to take control of The Mall and The Valley Forge Casino, being narrowly pushed back each time. But, in 2278 things changed, the Brotherhood of steel arrived in the ruins of Allentown and quickly began taking up holds in the northern stretch of the KOP Wasteland. They quickly allied themselves with the Minutmen and fought along side them to push the Enclave out of the KOP, a war they are still fighting to this day.
Type
Military, Paramilitary/Militia
Leader
Subsidiary Organizations
Comments