Athens-Tec Mine (described in-game as the Athens-Tec uranium pit) is a pre-War uranium mine located in the San Bernardino Mountains. It serves as the headquarters of the Raider Alliance.
Background[]
Athens-Tec Mine was established by the Los Angeles-based mining company Athens-Tec atop a valuable deposit of uranium and gold due to ever-increasing demand for fissile nuclear fuel before the Great War. Athens-Tec purchased nearly the entire Cajon Pass to support its operations, funding the construction of the town of Athens and pouring money into Union City to serve as homes and a de facto company town for the mine's workers and their families. The mine utilized a number of new advanced technologies to protect its workers and improve efficiencies, such as an acoustic net to prevent falling deaths, the D-00M mining laser, and Terra-Tec mining droids. As the Great War loomed, many workers and their families began to eye the mine as a potential safe haven from nuclear war, drawing both immigrant families and anti-government survivalists.
On October 23, 2077, many Athens-Tec workers and residents of Athens and Union City raced ahead of the bombs, taking shelter from the falling bombs in the mine's depths. Over several generations, the immigrant and survivalist families interbred, surviving on fungus grown in the mine's depths, as a rudimentary caste system evolved consisting of the closely-knit original families ruling as warlords and others working as slaves. With their massive arsenal of pre-War weaponry and survivalist/military training, they quickly expanded into the Pass, dominating nearby survivors and tribals and creating a rudimentary state, with enslaved peoples toiling to feed their Survivalist overlords at Athens-Tec. Over time the Survivalists spread out of the mine and established other communities such as Black Horse Ranch and Union City, but the mine remained their home and primary fortress.
Layout[]
Athens-Tec Mine is a massive mining pit carved into the San Bernardino Mountains north of Big Bear Lake. Surrounded by an extremely heavily fortified and reinforced network of trenches, outposts, and garrisons, it is the heart of the Raider Alliance and the primary home of the component tribes and their slaves. The mine itself is located in a sheltered valley among the mountains. It is connected to the rest of the Pass by State Route 173, leading south to Big Bear, and a ruined rail line located northeast of the pit. The pit's perimeter is surrounded by wrecked pre-War mining vehicles as well as the ruins of the Alliance's biodiesel reserves, destroyed years ago by the Wasteland Scouts and still burning. The Vipers have established their camp on the eastern rim of the pit. Along the northwestern rim is a small cluster of buildings hosting a Vertibird landing pad as well as a robotics and repair bay.
Inside the pit itself is a tangle of metallic scaffolding and defensive fortifications, with the southern portion of the pit full of toiling slaves and patrolling Survivalist guards. A large defensive gateway splits the pit in half, with the main hub of activity in the northern half of the pit. Here are numerous toiling slaves and small camps, with Beuford Duffney's slave auction platform elevated on the northwestern side of the pit, while Casio Aralias' repair tent is located to the north. On the eastern side is a cluster of loading platforms and old mining offices which have been converted into slave barracks and a clinic, with a tunnel leading down into Athens-Tec main cavern to the immediate northeast. A small pathway to the north of these structures leads up the pit's rim, to a massive mining crane that has been converted into a Vertibird pad, where Nos waits for the player character during Join The War Machine.
Buildings[]
Inhabitants[]
- Juan Maxson-Elsdragon
- Bloody Martha
Appearances[]
Athens-Tec Mine appears only in Fallout: New California.