The Deep State

A conspiracy of incompetence

Vault 89
"Kinda what happens when you bury the worst of people in a deep hole" -

Origins
The Deep State started as the self identified name for a cabal of wealthy good ol boys, sidelined by the budding Enclave Faction as ineffective, incompetent and inconsequential. The concept behind it was a delusional fantasy of bottom feeding career politicians with illusions of grandeur. Pretending they had a higher purpose than just personal gain, they trawled the seats of power for crumbs of information, improving their spiders web of favours and creating profit opportunities for their 'sponsors' in the laws for whoever can pay for them.

Founded by Butch "Turtle" McDonnell, they realised that their descent into political mediocrity was assured if they missed out of the profit opportunities in the frantic activity of a country at war, so they played complicated bureaucratic games to diverted resources, gain information and feather their nests without realising the enormity of the Enclave plans.

After a mid level corporate executive discovered a backdoor to the Enclave computer network, the group were able use this information to slowly built the case for their own vault to protect their interests. Thru sheer luck, they discovered evidence of the work of the Enclave.

Not realising the enormity of the conspiracy they had discovered, they immediately went to work ferreting as much value from the knowledge within the halls of power.

The retaliation from the Enclave was uncharacteristically civil and generous. Too much was at stake to allow even the smallest whisper from the gossips of the political world, so they distracted the scurry of bureaucrats with just the right bait.

Surviving the impending war would be the most important thing in the mind of someone who spent their whole career serving self interest. A Vault was upcoming for the state of Vermont and there were plenty of opportunities they could be tempted with, such as tenders for work, lobbyist deals to be made and regulations set or removed pending buyers request. There was even the inference of residency within the program.

What they didn’t know was that it had its own experiment and they were suitable applicants for a role. 

Vault 89
The Vault was 'marketed' as a dirty little secret for the wealthy and powerful and Prometheus Coal was used as the front for its operations, hiding any ties to the enclave. The achilles heel of a corrupt political network is the jealous scrutiny of those not in on the latest scheme. The wealthy donors of the power broking network quickly discovered the source of excitement and quickly set about their own projects. Soon a feeding frenzy of self interest and money flowed into the corporate board rooms of Prometheus Coal bringing just the right applicants for Vault 89s purpose. Bribery, nepotism and general corruption was secretly encouraged, and the executives gamed the process with enthusiasm  

The War
Not having the ideological assurity of purpose of the Enclave, their arrogant self interest and sense of superiority ensured the rocky implementation of copied plans. When the bombs actually dropped, most of the deep state were locked out of their own Vault, and their place taken by many of the public servants and corporate executives who endured their tenure and the wealthy elites who bought their place in line. Six wealthy influential and ruthless families had used their wealth and power for "platinum' residency that gave them residency, board membership and the control of the means of production in their new home. They moved in and assumed arrogant power without even considering the effects of post apocalyptic PTSD the survivors would eventually have to deal with in one way or another.  The Only 'Deep State' Politician that was able to get in was effectively demoted to a public servants spot, and immediately started to ingratiate themselves with their traditional allies in the security forces. He became the unofficial 'leader' of the department despite the Boards ongoing efforts to ensure there were no assemblies of the 'lower classes'  The rest of the occupants were promised as the skilled technicians, security forces, and necessary staff for surviving the apocalypse, but the 'plan' to ensure the most desperate and conniving residents over merit proved extremely effective. From the leaks provided by the political influence network, corporate salarymen and public servants quickly filled the positions with doctored qualifications and a complete lack of experience in the required roles. When the bombs dropped, they scrambled to fill the vault to capacity

Society - evolution
With the absence of the original members of the Deep State, the name began to represent a different meaning - It began to literally represent what sort of state man will create if buried deep in the ground. Through the machivellian contrivances of the Prometheus Coals specially appointed executive team, the effective occupation of DSV was procured for the highest bidder from the local elite Of course the applicants were chosen to push these conditions to the extremes. The choice of applicants was designed to get the most corrupt, vindictive, desperate and class conscious. They were setting an environment of dog eat dog in a very volatile social conditions. The autofactory of readily available industrial bots would provide the working class, the families became the ruling elite, and the rest became a bloated, ever changing mass of individuals vying for favour in the newly established society. The elites strictly forbid the gathering of the 'lower classes' into guilds, unions or support groups of any kind, as they feared the majority seeking wealth equality and usurping their power structure. One of the first laws enacted forbade involvement in any sort of assemblies, and all job roles are considered a direct and private relationship between the board & employee. Each potential worker has their details and skills enter in a vocational match making service. and thru the use of the gig economy model, they maintain a division between the competing members of the middle class. As the occupants included seasoned corrupt public servants with career experience in manipulating systems like this, it became an extortion opportunity which was quickly exploited The security class are the threat enforcement officers meant to protect the elite - soldiers in their corporate army. They bear the benefits of a 'civilised society, they must also lay down their lives based on the arrival of a memo saying such. In later years, the ruling class feared the abilities of the Security forces so much they The middleclass is dominated by 'salarymen',  who like the security class, are soldiers in the elites army, armed with business strategies and corporate structure. They provide the manpower to make their leaders 'projects' happen, and are treated as tools for the whims of the families. As they are minions to spoilt children of inherited wealth earnt without personal merit, they have to cater to the needs ranging from the esseantial to the absurd only equipped with cunning deception of a scavenger and expertise in machivellian bureacracy. Jacks of all trades who can talk a good job rather than do one.

Governance
While it was considered that ideology would follow a direct continuation of the pre-War United States of America, politics in Vault 89 went on a roller coaster of leadership theories and self righteous opinionated governance. What started as a corporate imagining of executive governance quickly devolved into as many incarnations as the extreme personalities of those who assumed power

The social norms could be described as American middle class corporate employee culture with the worst possible leadership on the Board of command. Each ‘family’ bought a Platinum pass which entitled them and their bloodline a seat on the Board in perpetuity. The hierachy is clearly a priority, with the 'Board' maintaining strict control for productivity efficiency, for 'Survival of Humanity!!*

A democracy of sorts exists for morale purposes, for those who have proved to be suitable for voting privileges but they only get to choose from the limited selection of the families, who each are 'supervoters ' whose endorsement was worth hundreds of votes. Due to early an early bipartisan project to protect the survival of the 'key' figures in maintaining control, the ministry of the constitution control employs an excessive amount of human resources making sure the process is so mind numbingly political and complicated, that understanding what was going on

In later years, xx established the project for "The News Ministry, now with entertainment™" over the vault radio broadcast to divide the masses further and stupify the voters

Somehow, they end up voting in a CEO, and he chooses his cabinet from each of the families VP + 4 cabinet positions - civics, warehousing, Human resources, business economics). They then retire to the overseers office for the 'sitting of congress', an annual month of silence from the board members, locked in secret deliberation over the issues of the Vault. After they emerge, many of them are treated for physical ailments inflicted upon them thru the [redacted] trials of governance and announced the findings of the Annual General Meeting where the reports are revealed, targets are set and projects launched Projects of the 'national interests' which get staffed, resourced and prioritised, which usually include the essential services but depend primarily on the whim of the current CEO 

Social class
The society of the Deep State is heavily influenced by its divisional and myriad of social roles. The promise is that a good salaryman has only to conform to the needs of the Board long enough to earn an 'office' of citzenship, or higher. In practice this rarely eventuated

The Good old boys of conservative career politics were outplayed so well, barely a handful got into the vault but the bureacracy they represented was well demonstrated in the lackeys who had thrived under parasitic synergy of pre war politics

The elite class’s authority is sacrosanct, and the power has consequently corrupted the families in their own way. Heavily influenced by corporate culture, leaders have been influenced by prominent thought leaders in business, motivation and corporate culture. Its common for a term to be based entirely around a particular pundits way of thinking, until it runs its course in the worst conditions and another perspective is just used to replace it and the cycle begins again.

The Families business plan for Vault represented the crony capitalist wealthy class entering directly the world of governance, and resembled neo feudalism in practice more than a democracy

Trying to emulate the likes of the British East India company, they have a rigid corporate structure that emphasises it as a meritocracy based on hard work and inspired leadership (Motivational speakers as 'thought leaders') while in practice demonstrating that a background in wealth doesn’t guarantee good governance in the interests of more than self The security class are the threat enforcement officers meant to protect the elite. They bear the benefits of a 'civilised society, they must also lay down their lives based on the arrival of a memo saying such.

The a middle class is a hotbed of intrigue, machavellian schemes, intricate webs of networks of favours and influence, each demographic vying for improvement in their standing according to the whims of the board. As the majority, they are kept divided and insecure for the safety of the elites, and are constantly competing for relevance.

Human resource skills are managed thru a primitive skill matchmaking software akin to modern ‘linkedin’ but with corrupted and complicated algorithms. Consequently the middle class has developed arcane series of nicknames for various roles and responsibilities to make sense of the workforce. These are technically against the law, but without them society would have trouble making sense at all.

These include -

The production of a range of robots provides the equivalent of the lower class. They resemble the 'robots' from metropolis, and thru the machinations of a psychopathic automated resources manager, automated personalities are widely distributed as representatives of the mascots that were used to sell them. The facade of personality and individuality is prized higher than the generic abilities of the fleet of robots.

other references
In a non-canon imaginary terminal entry in the Addams airforce base, it revealed that the Enclave had been monitoring intently the findings of Vault 89. It was not clear if they viewed it as relevant social dynamics to avoid in the post apocalypse or the first manifestation of a reality media soap opera *specific individuals and quantity of survivors cannot be guaranteed. translata fortuna iuvat. If the Recipient preamble This license establishes the terms of this License, or (at your option) c) You may add your name as a model for your convenience in a manner that reasonably allows subsequent Recipients to identify the originator of the work (an example is provided in accordance with the Licensed Product, and (iv) you make modifications or additions to that component, or a Contributor with its distribution of the operating system on which the Initial Developer in the display of characters outside that particular Modification has been generated from a Digital Font Program licensed by the terms applicable to Licensed Product or Modifications that you can justify on the Program" means the Original Program, and ii) additions to or loss of data, and may be copied, modified, distributed, and/or redistributed. The intent of this License or the Derived Program; and (b) any software, hardware, or device, other than Sun has the sole purpose of discussing and improving the Work, and no requirements are made concerning any offers of support for the user when used interactively with that Base Interpreter, then, wherever this component of an executable program, or a legal action under this License. However, in accepting such obligations, You may Distribute your Modified Version using the URL:http://hdl.handle.net/1895.22/1011"