Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Tunnel Rats

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The Tunnel Rats are the anti-structure infantry forces under the Survivors' allegiance. Planned to be voiced by.

Overview
* TBA*

History
"Peace, Love, and the pursuit of all who threaten it."

-The Tunnel Rat Motto

Land Surveyors were the common title for the Tunnel Rats when they worked for the Department of the Interior prior to the war. The majority of them were men and women born in the inter-war period. Even the islands far from the warzone suffered mass rationing and infrastructural shortcomings throughout both the war and the following reconstruction period. When the military drawdown began to take hold in the mid-1950s, the following population boom in Embry brought the municipal governments to their knees.

Overcrowding along the Atlantic paved the way for mass relocation to the Southwest and eventually the Pacific. The relative room for growth in California and its hospitable climate encouraged the rapid urbanization of the western islands to such an extent that the land was unable to support the mass migrations. Rolling blackouts were common during hot days and drought routinely lead to the collapse of all semblance of modern civility as all that could be done to conserve limited resources would be put into effect. For a decade California suffered routine cycles of growth, prosperity, and disaster until the Federal Government finally intervened in 1960 and began the construction of the Northwest Irrigation System, which would use the overabundance of rainfall in the mountainous north to meet the demand of fresh water and energy in the coastal south.

Tunnel Rats were employed by the government as the architects and engineers behind such a grand project. They were given little more than a surplus rifle left over from the war and then were sent off to tame the wilderness. In their occupation, they meet nothing they couldn't overcome with the appropriate use of explosives. They dug tunnels throughout the mountain ranges of the Rockies with almost incalculable precision. They built bridges to span the rivers and after bays, and (grudgingly) channeled water to their Southern neighbors. But like all Emry, they were horrified by the sudden invasion of Santa Monica by the Voshkod. Everything they had was under threat and what little they had might be lost. They quickly assembled makeshift militias and dug tunnels throughout the area, evacuating civilians.

In the immediate aftermath of the battle, they stood on top of the surrounding valleys only to see their hometowns ravaged by foreign invaders. They returned to the northern mountains and set up camp in tunnels underneath Castle Crags. Here in an impenetrable fortress built by their hands, they began to prepare for the next disaster, waiting for a time when their skills would be needed by the Californian people, and once more the Bear Flag would fly freely once again. That disaster came with the nukes dropping on their homeland. In which they were prepared for by evacuating their people into the massive tunnel networks they dug out.

The Tunnel Rats are perhaps the most mysterious out of all of the Minutemen’ volunteer military. Unlike the other soldiers in the Minutemen Army, Tunnel Rats are actually somewhat socialist in nature, most belonging to various groups that provide benefits and healthcare to wounded members and collectively bargain with the Minutemen for social rights and compensation for past injustices. This, understandably, makes them very popular with the Environmental Liberation Party but disliked by the Industrial Party, who often butt heads with them over corporate social responsibility. Nonetheless, they embody the rugged Embry spirit and the power of the ordinary man fully and draw open and public support from many of Northern California's survivalist compounds, marijuana farms, spiritual communes, and municipal governments.