Slabtown
Before the Great War, the neighborhood known as Slabtown was a dingy strip of communal housing that stretched alongside Portland's industrial zone. Contracted and incarcerated workers in the city's rail yards and chemical plants were provided low-cost housing close by their places of work where they would be able to contribute to the American war machine as efficiently as possible, far away from easily accessible distractions of the city proper.
It is one of the only places in the wasteland that one could argue was actually improved by the collapse of civilization.
These days Slabtown hosts one of the largest and most prosperous populations in Cascadia. It is by far the largest of the many Scav settlements that dot the Cascadian wasteland in their isolated distance from one another. As such, it has always served as something of a hub for Portland.
While the Locals have Lloyd Center to cater to their mercantile and communal needs, Slabtown remains a place of industry and productivity for the craft Scavs who also call it home. What remains of the Portland's industrial district is still a gold-mine of mechanical scrap and operable machinery (which made it a place of particular interest to OMSI for a time). The melting-pot of Scav clans and their collective survival knowledge has also made it one of the only places where crops and livestock were reliably produced in the region, marking it as an essential place for barter and collaboration among Portland's elite. As the town has grown over the years it has spread from the communal housing into the industrial plants themselves, and even the Fremont Bridge was co-opted and turned into a livable space with shanty structures clustered around its legs and underbelly.
At least, it used to be all of those things.
On a quiet night in mid 2210 Slabtown was annihilated by a long-range saturation bombing perpetrated by General Horn, the leader of the Guardians. His official reasoning for the attack was a necessary strike at the Super Mutant Unity remnants who were attempting to move a war-party through the town. One of such magnitude that, in his words, would have unquestionably signaled the death-knell for Portland should they successfully cross the Wilamette.
Not for the first time in Portland's history, a single night and a single decision claimed the lives of countless innocents. Horn remains steadfast in his decision, claiming a desire to protect the greater good of the people and a necessary margin of sacrifice that needs to be made. The wholesale destruction of Slabtown will doubtlessly have a lasting, damning impact on not just the city of Portland but all of Cascadia. If there is one thing that the Scavs are good at it is holding a grudge, and it's not like the relationship between the Guardians and the Scavs was copacetic to begin with. All of Cascadia is watching to see what the fallout from this event will be.
And they aren't the only ones.
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