Gunners

The Gunners are the largest and best-equipped raider band in the Commonwealth, and were the final challenge to overcome before the United Communities could be established.

Origins
The Gunners originate from Fort Hamilton in New York City. The commander there, in order to ensure survival, emphasized loyalty and refused to tolerate subordination. When the New York Ruin became nearly uninhabitable, the soldiers from Fort Hamilton migrated northward, leaving a path of destruction in their wake. They marched into Connecticut, taking slaves as they went, which they used to sell for caps or weaponry. Being the best-equipped band in Connecticut, they had no problem storming the former military installations there and seizing its armaments.

The Gunners stayed in Connecticut for a while, maintaining a strict military lifestyle. Women were originally kept as slaves and breeding stock, but over time women came to receive better treatment than men and some even becoming formidable soldiers themselves. The Gunners made their caps through enslavement, by either using the slaves to farm or development weaponry, or just selling the slaves, raiding, or mercenary work. The Gunners grew comfortable in their position, and the military discipline began to relax.

Move to the Commonwealth
The Gunners suffered a major blow when their commander died in 2280 and then a major radiation storm and bad weather hit Connecticut. By that time, Gunner raiders had picked Connecticut clean, and any smart citizen fled to either the Commonwealth or the Capital Wasteland. These disasters led to a rise of fundamentalists in the Gunners, led by Commander Moore, a decorated mercenary. Moore explained that the disasters were punishment for their lack of discipline. Moore also believed Connecticut was no longer suitable, and the Gunners needed a new target: their neighbor to the north, the Commonwealth. The Gunners left Connecticut in 2281, and followed Moore north.

Moore traversed the swampy and nearly inhospitable region known as the Hook to reach his destination: the pre-war military base in Plymouth. It became known as The Rock due to its location on a cliff side, making it nearly impossible to storm. Moore rallied the Gunners and got them to work, re-instilling discipline and military tradition. The Gunners terrorized the small settlements in the hook, and used captured settlers as slaves to build roads heading north or as conscripts in their army. Refugees heading north from the Hook told stories of these foreign raiders, but few could spare the resources to head south to scout of this potential threat. So the Commonwealth remained quiet while the Gunners rebuilt their strength.

In 2287, the Gunners took the Commonwealth by storm. The first town to be struck was the settlement of Quincy, which was defended by the last true Minutemen. Thanks to a traitorous Minutemen, the Gunners found an easy way to take the settlement, and its population was massacred. The Massacre at Quincy was seemingly the end of the Minutemen, destroyed by the Gunners. Slavery was essentially non-existent in the Commonwealth. Without being able to trade slaves, only limited prisoners were enslaved, mainly to be shipped back to The Rock to either be put to work or conscripted.

The Gunners continued marching north, setting up their forward command base at an old Galaxy News Network broadcast center, which became known to the Commonwealth as the Gunners plaza. Teams were sent north, either on foot and through Vertibirds. These teams constructed forts along highway overpasses, and planned on reconnecting the passes to connect their bases and make taking the Commonwealth easier. Major outposts were built at the Mass Pike Interstate, Vault 75, and Hub City Autowreckers. Moore planned on taking the major pre-war military bases and checkpoints first. The Gunners seemed poised to take the Commonwealth when the Sole Survivor emerged from Vault 111 after 210 years in cryogenic sleep.

Final Battle
The Minutemen had managed to traverse the Hook using the remaining roads after months of slogging through the irradiated marshland, and began a siege of the Rock. The Gunners had enough food to last for a year, but Commander Moore believed starving to death would not be a warrior's death. Instead, Moore decided to break out of the castle and retreat to Connecticut. The final battle of the Minutemen-Gunner War, the Battle of the Rock, had begun.

The two sides traded artillery fire back and forth until the Gunners' cannons had been disabled by the more powerful Minutemen arsenal. Moore then ordered a charge on the Minutemen; the ferocity of the attack nearly overwhelmed the Minutemen. Power armored Brotherhood units, as well as the timely arrival of the USS Constitution, turned the tide of the battle. Both the Brotherhood and Minutemen Power Armor units stood firm as the Gunner charge reached them, and the ships broadsides stunned the Gunners, who had no defense against them. The majority of the Gunners prefered death to surrender, resulting in a bloodbath as the Gunners were moved down. Cunningham gave the order to take the Rock, and the Gunner lines crumbled as the Minutemen stormed the Rock.

The remaining Gunners made use of their stockpile of power armor and heavy weaponry, preferring to destroy as much as possible in a last stand. Moore himself was found in the stockpile, and upon being cornered, activated a Fat Man nuke. The blast killed a number of Minutemen, including Cunningham's friend and Lieutenant "Honest" Dan Wentworth. The Rock had been taken, but at a heavy price for the Minutemen.

The taking of the Rock was the end of the Gunners. The highest ranking prisoners were tried and executed, while a number of Gunners who had been enslaved and captured were freed from their imprisonment. The taking of Gunner territory opened up Connecticut and the eastern seaboard to the Commonwealth, beginning to process of linking the Commonwealth and the Capital Wasteland along the seaboard through the New York Ruin.